Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Q=1 just means that the plasma is putting out more energy then is put in. However, that doesn't mean you can recover all of that energy; you can't run a heat engine at millions of degrees, so energy generation has to be fairly indirect, which means you need about Q=30 to handle all the various conversion inefficiencies and still come out net positive enough to be practical.


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: