NYT Article Misleads Readers On Fusion Energy News
Major Fusion Energy Breakthrough to Be Announced by Scientists
That’s the headline for an article by NYT staff writer Kenneth Chang about an impending announcement from the Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory to the effect that Lawrence Livermore has improved upon previous experiments that have used enormous laser arrays to create – for a nanosecond or thereabouts – a controlled fusion reaction that generated more energy that was consumed in the process of creating the energy bubble.
Not cold fusion, thankfully, but an actual experiment that produces actual results…just not enough results to make a real difference because the experiment yielded an infinitesimal amount of energy more than the amount of energy that was invested to create that effect.
This is a prime example of headline pimping, the practice of writing sensationalized headlines that are not supported by the following article.
Laser fusion systems are decades away from realization, a fact that Kenneth Chang made quite clear in his report.
The number of plants that would be required to generate the power required to satisfy our energy requirements would require an investment several orders of magnitude greater than the potential return on investment when other, cheaper energy-generating systems are taken into the accounting process.
The author of this piece appears to have never been in a power generation plant because three football fields – the amount of space required for ONE such fusion reactor – wouldn’t begin to cover a standard facility when, on average, power generating stations occupy ten times that amount of space or more, depending on the motive power source.
The article itself makes these points quite clearly. A system that gives back only slightly more energy than it consumes isn’t a solution to our energy problems. It’s a symptom of them.
This is another example of the sensationalization of scientific developments in the popular press that has the net effect of raising unreasonable expectations and consequently encouraging many to believe that the dire emergency that we are living through isn’t as dire as it really is.
It’s also clickbait.
While we are investing absurd amounts of money in nuclear fusion, we could be spending that money to develop real-world here-today thorium reactors…but you think that nuclear is a big mistake.
Before you pledge yourself to that belief, watch this:
12/13/2022 @ 10:36 am
If you copy and paste this into your post, it will appear immediately as an element of your work and not as an aside:
12/13/2022 @ 10:39 am
Oops…It’s now an immediately viewable element of the comment thread…
12/13/2022 @ 10:48 am
I did as you suggested. Thank you.
12/13/2022 @ 6:24 pm
Sustainability ought not be maligned with acronomic particulate wherein novice readers must ‘up-scroll’ to be sure the buzzards are on the wire. Why not simply try sunbeams on paddle wheels? Hades! My 30 day-odd cable/interweb bill has just surpassed the price of a new Think-pad. Where’s that image of unfolding hands harnessing the sun? Science News has a fine bulletin dove-tailed for crisper intellect than mine. Please don’t quizz me. After two perhaps three top down bottoms —^ reads I audioed ‘Walk Don’t Run’ (Ventures circa 1966) and breathed deeply viewing The Thundering Herd [from wildlife artist James Corwin] and became increasingly perplexed that iPhones can’t be motorized skateboards. Would palm trees ’round upon the equator cool AI-ntegrity? Or lack tell us a bit more? For all we know Mathew B. Brady and his flashbulb were the catalyst for all this heat off the press. Bikes! The shortest day of 2022 in what’s IT?! 7 days 6 hours 43 minutes 21 seconds a/k/a Winter Solstice {. . .}
12/14/2022 @ 8:28 am
Their first wide-release single, “Walk, Don’t Run” (1960), brought international fame to the group, and is often cited as one of the top songs ever recorded for guitar.
——Wikipedia
It’s difficult to think of the Ventures and their music as precursors to the sound and appearance of contemporary ‘hard rock’ bands…
Dick Clark’s all white audience is a manifestation of the culturally divisive racism that lurked just beneath the surface of American social and political atmosphere that has been manipulated and exploited and persists to this day as a primary element and component of the so-called ‘conservative movement’.
This is proof positive of the fact that ”Trumpism” wasn’t created by Trump.
He simply took advantage of what was/is there and ran with it all the way to the American Presidency and the White House….
12/14/2022 @ 9:38 am
I don’t get how this comment relates to the article to which it is attached. The comments are valid but I just don’t see the connection with what I wrote.
12/14/2022 @ 11:26 am
Alan,
The comment is in reaction to jpHart’s reference to the Ventures and their ground breaking recording ‘Walk Don’t Run’ which was released in 1960 not 1966…
The video is very telling and, when stretched, relevant…
12/15/2022 @ 12:33 am
I’ve nothing but respect and adulation for EMPIRICISM, OUR FREE PRESS and the C.0F.LUV.
My frustration herewith is that the NYT is not notoriously yellow; its reportage and distribution prototypical for preserving journalism. And yeah, sure, one would ‘anticipate’ more than a ‘popped bubble’ fusion end product. Time is not energy. Sad how the cross-discipline of, say, visualist Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame did not manufacture at least that much redundant, utilitarian propellant. One more round for experience. At least the innovators are underway. Optimism rules everywhere. Even upon our ship of fools. And yeah, rhymes are often distractions of the thing at hand. I understand, respectfully. Possibly WHY Ursula, Ray and I are headed toward Lodi listening to Steve Miller’s ‘Fly Like an Eagle’.
It’s alright.
[sic] ‘ … While we are investing absurd amounts of money in nuclear fusion, we could be spending that money to develop real-world here-today thorium reactors…but you think that nuclear fusion is a big mistake.’ Perhaps Neil deGrasse Tyson will soon favor humanity majors like me with a detailed proforma of fusion ignition. And the propensity of thorium reactors. Hey happy peaceful holidays! Please have snow & rock n’ roll LO;}