Tech bosses think nuclear fusion is the solution to AI’s energy demands – here’s what they’re missing
theconversation.com
Nuclear fusion can’t produce net energy, so is it really a solution to AI’s growing energy demands?

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.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
    41·
    29 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.ukEnglish
        41·
        29 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.