UK step closer to 'limitless' energy after AI breakthrough
Britain has taken a major leap towards harnessing limitless clean energy after scientists unveiled an AI tool that slashes the time needed to model complex nuclear fusion reactions from days to mere seconds. Researchers at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) have developed GyroSwin, a groundbreaking artificial intelligence model that simulates turbulent plasma behaviour up to 1,000 times faster than traditional methods - and at a fraction of the cost...
Fusion has long been dismissed as "always 30 years away", but recent milestones - including record energy outputs at facilities like JET in Oxfordshire - have renewed optimism.
Hmm - 'targeted for the 2040s' may not be 30 years away but sceptics are likely to stick with scepticism for now. Unlike fusion power, scepticism works.
There are some technological news releases that I pay no attention to. One sort is of any minor advance towards practical fusion power.
ReplyDeleteOthers include any theoretical improvement in battery or solar cell performance. There's a long lead time between a technical demonstration and full production.
I do follow news releases about semiconductor technologies - they often move into production in just a few years. Although even there the earlier big gains have already been realised. Perhaps that is why there is so much hype about AI and Data Centres - the ordinary stuff is just about played out.
Charlatans jockeying for funding might be more tolerable if only they would actually produce something we need . . .
ReplyDelete"...unlike nuclear fusion, scepticism works..."
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly.
I started reading New Scientist so long ago that I claim that fusion is always forty years away. Do I hear "fifty"?
ReplyDeleteDJ - I reckon stories about fusion and battery breakthroughs too often come close to lying. I follow pieces about semiconductor technologies too, plus a few others where hype isn't the norm.
ReplyDeleteJannie - that's the problem, a working prototype would be good even if to begin with it's no more reliable than Ed's wind turbines.
Peter - yes, it goes back such a long way. In this case the past seems to have become a guide to the future.
dearieme - I'll go with fifty, not that I'll be around to find out. Hmm - may as well go for 'never'.
Suppose AI could reveal the possibility that Nuclear Fusion power is impossible, much more quickly and at a fraction of the cost?
ReplyDeleteTammly - it would have to be careful, it could be cancelled.
ReplyDelete