>>14418744>>14417839>>14417595What makes anyone think that fusion makes any sense at all as a net-positive generator? It works for the sun so for some reason it should work on earth?
My smoothbrain says it's nonsense. It's not like fission where there is a clear chain of energy transfer. With fission, all you do is push something over an edge that it's desperately trying to do anyway. The energy released is always greater than the push required. All energy released is contained in a literal container, the reactor vessel.
With fusion you aggressively force two things together. Where is the energy being released from? The best thing you can possibly do is cause a fusion with the absolute minimum energy input. The act of pushing two particles together until they bond is actually taking energy out of its immediate environment. If you want the fusion process to happen continuously you have to keep pumping more energy. To improve efficiency you can awkwardly collect any excess heat and re-feed it into the reactor's power supply.
Fusion can work in the sun because of the potential energy from the strong gravity well. Fused particles sink to the center while unfused particles and energy continue to float around via typical fluid behaviour.
