What technological problems are associated with nuclear power and nuclear fusion?

Answer 1

There is an existing fusion technology that produces controlled amounts of fusion energy - more energy out of the fusion power generating system than it takes to run the fusion power generating system.

It might be worthwhile to remember that Ivy-Mike technology worked the very first time it was tried in the 1952 nuclear test. Mike technology was the basis of the first thermonuclear weapons in the US arsenal. Adapting Mike technology to be pure DT-DD fusion opens up many new applications in safe, economical, fusion power generation.

While historically practical nuclear fusion has used a small amount of fissionable material like U235 to produce the conditions for fusion - Today, there are smaller pure fusion devices optimized to make clean energy (not blast effects) from hybrid pure DT-DD fusion while producing no radioactive fission products and high level nuclear waste. Modern DT-DD pure fusion devices produce the overwhelming majority of their energy from the DD fusion reaction of Deuterium separated from sea water.

One such modern hybrid DT-DD fusion design is called mini-Mike, which produces a small predictable controlled energy yield of 250 GJ per shot.

(Since pictures and outside web links are not allowed on Answers)

Description of a practical hybrid 2-stage fusion device -

mini-Mike is a two stage device that features a small hollow 2 mm diameter Deuterium-Tritium fusion capsule which in turn ignites a column of pressurized Deuterium cryo-liquid resulting in devices with safe and reliable energy yields optimized for power generation.

In 60 years, no other fusion technology (Magnetic Confinement or Inertial Confinement) has ever produced any net energy (more energy out of the fusion reaction than it takes to get the fusion plasma to fusion conditions).

In 60 years, all existing MCF and ICF fusion systems have never worked (in the sense that they have not produced more energy from fusion than it took to get the fusion plasma to fusion conditions)..

Mike technology worked the first time it was tried and produced huge amounts of net energy (and has never failed).

Rather than placing our faith in scaling laws while we build ever larger and more expensive fusion experiments while trying to achieve break even energy generation - why not go back to the field and adapt technology that has never failed to finally find success in fusion?

Answer 2

Some technological problems associated with nuclear power include the risk of nuclear accidents, nuclear waste disposal, and the potential for nuclear proliferation. In terms of nuclear fusion, challenges include creating sustainable fusion reactions, managing high temperatures and pressures, and developing efficient energy extraction methods.