nuclear power produces long-lived radioactive waste, which needs to be stored securely. Nuclear fuels, such as the element uranium (which needs to be mined), are finite, so the technology is not considered renewable. Renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power suffer from “intermittency”, meaning they do not consistently produce energy at all hours of the day.

fusion technologies have yet to produce sustained net energy output (more energy than is put in to run the reactor), let alone produce energy at the scale required to meet the growing demands of AI. Fusion will require many more technological developments before it can fulfil its promise of delivering power to the grid.

  • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    66
    ·
    27 days ago

    They’re missing a fusion reactor capable of positive energy output?

    “Tech bosses think warp drive might get us to Mars faster…”

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          27 days ago

          That’s the absolute worst analogy of wormholes as well. They don’t fold space, so stop folding the piece of paper.

            • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              27 days ago

              Explaining wormholes by folding a piece of paper is a bit like explaining tunnels by folding a piece of paper. It’s totally not what’s going on.

              They don’t fold spacetime, they don’t need to, they are shortcutting through spacetime via higher dimensions. Rather like tunneling through a hill rather than going over the top.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      27 days ago

      It seems that today’s elites have made that Soviet transition from doing more to support their prestige to promising more to support their prestige.