Scientists recently overturned a 59-year-old belief about the magnetic fields used to contain plasma in fusion reactors. Google gave their breakthrough to Gemini 4 agents. Within hours, the AI found new solutions that went beyond what the original researchers had discovered. The result: two new ways

[u/141_1337]

[u/Strange-Pin-2998]

Fusion still uses fuel.

[u/WordsAboutSomething → u/Strange-Pin-2998]

Oh boy, what fuel does it use? Deuterium? Man, that sounds fancy, must be pretty rare.

Oh wait, it’s the second most common isotope of hydrogen? And 70% of the world’s surface is covered in water, which is made up of hydrogen?

There is about 33 grams of deuterium per cubic meter of ocean water. 1 gram of deuterium in a fusion reaction produces the equivalent of burning around 11 tons of coal.

The US burns 373 million tons of coal annually for electricity, releasing all that carbon into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, to generate the same amount of electricity, we would only need to use 1 million cubic meters of ocean water. A town of 50,000 people uses MORE FRESH WATER than that each year.

edit: Second most common isotope**

[u/Strange-Pin-2998 → u/WordsAboutSomething]

Don't be a dick. Nobody actually wants to use D-D for fuel long term for numerous reasons. The alternatives have supply chain issues. Fusion fuel is not a simple or straightforward engineering problem.

[u/Running-In-The-Dark → u/Strange-Pin-2998]

Why?