Boffins bet on quantum computers, AI supers to solve fusion fuel dilemma

Fusion energy has presented a tantalizing alternative to fossil fuels for the better part of a century, but creating the equivalent of a human-made sun is easier said than done. However, new research from the boffins at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Cleveland Clinic, and IBM in support of the Department of Energy’s ( …

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

"...and then a miracle happens, and boom! Profit!"

[Stumpy]

The word "Boom" in relation to anything to do with nuclear power, is never a good sign...

[Denarius]

phamtom solutions for a zombie problem

stuff that doesn't really exist for a problem always 20 years away from working. Sounds like GhostBusters chase minMin Lights

[SnailFerrous]

Minor corrections

We have had fusion power available since 1952 and the Ivy Mike test. It is just that nobody wants to live, or indeed can live anywhere near where it is used.

We also have a very large fusion power station 96,000,000 miles away that has been supplying us with energy for even longer.

[LionelB]

Re: Minor corrections

> It is just that nobody wants to live, or indeed can live anywhere near where it is used.

It also makes grid balancing quite tricky.

[IanRS]

Reducing the ready-by date from 20 years away...

... to just 20 years away.

[druck]

AI and Quantum bollocks is going to solve fusion? Well they chucked everything into the hypefest except poor old blockchain.

[Andy The Hat]

you misunderstand, blockchain is so old hat! All they have to do is get loads of cash to pump into AI and quantum to make it work - cash baby cash! Then, with the aid of lots more "targeted investment", they hope to be able to use whatever they produce to see if it comes up with an idea of how to make fusion work. By the time this all unfolds as a house of cash-cards, the CEOs will be done and dusted, the huge "targeted investments" will be long funneled through the Cayman Islands/multiple yachts and the populous will be pinning their hopes on something still 20 years away ...

[jn5250]

The business plan seem to be like: Lay out railroad tracks in the hope that someone invents the locomotive.

[vtcodger]

Pace of development

Quantum computing looks to be the only technology whose pace of development is slower than that of Hydrogen fusion. A four bit number (15) was factored in 2001. A five bit number (21) wasn't factored (sort of) until 2025.* But fear not. We are assured there will be a breakthrough any day now.

*Factoring 15 only required 21 functioning qubits to work. Fully factoring a five bit number apparently needs 2045 qubits. To factor 21, they only hooked up the subset of qubits needed for factoring that specific number.

** We're talking real quantum computing here, not quantum annealing (D-Wave). Quantum annealing apparently can handle larger numbers than quantum computing in practice but has a limited range of applicability. I do not remotely understand how either "quantum" technology works. I assume somebody somewhere does.

[ParlezVousFranglais]

I assume somebody somewhere does.

*Everybody* assumes somebody somewhere does - that's the problem, and why they need AI to "fix" it...

[LionelB]

"The trick, as you might expect, is predicting the electronic ground-state energies of FLiBe molecular clusters to better understand how they bind tritium"

Of course. I fully expected that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U1NuNeoTEo

[JimmyPage]

A lesson from the 19th Century

I can't help but recall a comment about the Difference Engine from a cabinet minister

Which was that it's ultimate application would be to calculate how much had been spent on it.

[Hurn]

2 issues

Tritium is "rare"?

Aren't there tons of it in seawater?

The trick, of course, is filtering it out.

Maybe a Quantum powered Centrifuge?

Cleveland Clinic?!?

Aren't they the whores[1] who repackage every bit of medical "hype" and rebrand it as "news"?

Howard Stern used to shill for them: "Cleveland Clinic, Robin, Cleveland Clinic!"

And now, they're hyping fusion? What's next, Cleveland Clinic, Trump NFTs?

[1] Apologies to all ladies of the evening. True professionals, such as yourselves, should never be lumped in with the Cleveland Clinic. They are media whores, not median whores.

[FrogsAndChips]

Re: 2 issues

It's deuterium that's abundant in seawater. For nuclear fusion you need both deuterium and tritium.