Thread 60904389

>The fusion power plant could produce 5,000 kg of gold per gigawatt of thermal power in a single year of operation

>In a recently released paper posted to the arXiv preprint server, the company outlines a method to turn an isotope of mercury, 198Hg, into 197Au, the most stable form of gold.

>They say this can be done while also creating an abundance of clean energy via nuclear fusion in a tokamak reactor. Maybe even more impressive is the amount of gold they say this process will create—2 metric tons of gold per gigawatt of thermal power per year, according to their simulations.

Always believe it.

>>60904389 (OP)
this even funnier than comet mining

>>60904389 (OP)
The CEO will be found dead of natural causes and the project disbanded

>>60904426
It's over. They are producing enough to pay for the energy. This time it's not a joke.

So gold is turning into ethereum now. Just keep making more.

>>60904406
my first reaction was fun, but the required isotope of Hg is so rare it'll be more expansive that the gold it makes
but no i was wrong, natural abundance is 10% so at least that part will work out

Basically, Gold is going the way of Aluminum. This means we need to transfer to Silver.

>>60904389 (OP)
>>60904406
2500-3000 tons of gold is mined each year. So for these new types of energy plants they’d need like hundred of these to cause a supply increase that’d significantly affect price

>>60904623
You could produce multiple GWs with a single reactor, and if you can repurpose existing reactors there's already 50+ operating in the world.
Nuclear reactors generally aren't profitable to run, so while there may not be a significant change in price NOW in the future countries like China will eventually overproduce (like they do in every sector) once it becomes a viable revenue stream.
Hell even countries that were previously Anti-Nuclear would probably start building plants.

>>60904389 (OP)
>strip mercury to make gold and create energy
>use energy to mine BTC

This is the 6th time we've released a bullshit sci-fi story to FUD gold this year, and we've become increasingly efficient at it.

>>60904389 (OP)
Eventually anything made out of atoms will be made from electricity
Bullish

Short is the ultimate safe haven

>>60904553
>1200 tons of mercury mined each year
>10% is 198Hg
>3000 tons of gold is mined each yea
>somehow they want to produce 5 tons of gold per gigawatt hour

are they going to massively increase mercury mining just to feed a fraction of it into their power plant? what are they going to do with all the remaining mercury they've put into circulation?

>>60907180
It's a desperate tactic

The whitepaper for this process is so fucking funny. It's like "Step 1: Invent fusion reactors" and the news outlets are like "Holy shit, free gold!" All you need is a shitload of a rare mercury isotope and then 15 years to let the gold decay into a non-radioactive state afterward.

>>60907342
I have a suggestion: dump the excess mercury on beaches.

Issues according to clanker research:

No working fusion plants yet
Not a single commercial D-T fusion reactor exists.

Scale mismatch
Thousands of GW-scale plants would be needed to rival mining, far beyond any realistic build-out in this century.

Feedstock bottleneck
Hundreds of tonnes of enriched 198Hg per plant; isotope separation at that scale is unproven.

Gold delay
Product needs 7-17 years of radioactive cooldown before sale, blocking quick revenue.

Engineering gaps
Liquid mercury-lithium blankets, structural material compatibility, and tritium breeding are unresolved.

Regulation and safety
Handling massive mercury inventories is politically and environmentally fraught.

Economics
Fusion plants cost billions; storage, enrichment, and handling wipe out margins unless gold price stays very high.

>>60904389 (OP)
did any of you retards even read the article? here is it:
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-marathon-fusion-mercury-gold-energy.html

let me quote it:
>The half-life of 197Hg is only about 64 hours, so the decay into gold is relatively fast. However, small amounts of other radioactive isotopes are also created in the process, requiring a "cooling time" before the end product can be released to the public. A general, but conservative, rule is that the radioactivity must be less than that of a banana, and for this particular gold product, that comes out to a cooling time of about 17.7 years.
>The study authors don't seem to be deterred by this impediment though. They say, "In practice, given that much of all gold is used to store value and is not actively in use, we do not expect the need to store it for 7–17 years to be a major impediment; at worst, it means that the product will initially have somewhat less value than pure 197Hg, and so some discount should be applied to the value of freshly produced gold."

also, as far as I know, the whole fucking problem with fusion is that THEY STILL HAVE NOT FOUND WAYS TO MAKE IT STABLE AND TO RECOVER MORE ENERGY FROM IT THAN WHAT THEY HAVE TO USE TO START THE FUSION PROCESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.

>>60907400
Yeah but you know once it is made by steady rate, the future release of it will get priced in. By the time 15 years clock in they would dump tons every day.

>>60904606
You precious metal idiots are so dumb

I remember when gold was skyrocketing in 2011, they were putting out asteroid mining articles back then making it sound like it was just around the corner 14 years ago. Gold prices ATH again, and here comes all the same old bullshit again.
https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/the-first-trillionaires-will-make-their-fortunes-in-space/
>While the idea of mining space for resources is not a new one, we are closer than ever today to realizing that reality.

Where's all the asteroid mining? Where's that giant $300 trillion motherlode they supposedly found in Uganda years ago? Where's the large hadron collider gold alchemy? Where's the gold leaking out of Hawaiian volcanoes? 15 years later, you'll still be wondering where the mercury fusion gold is and prices will be like $35,000 / oz.

>>60907539
Cope and seethe baggie

>>60904389 (OP)
BROS I JUST FOUND OUT THEY MAKE THIS THING CALLED EDIBLE GOLD LEAF MADE WITH REAL(tm) GOLD
SELL EVERYTHING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

>>60904389 (OP)
Silicone valley warlocks and Gold cometa are destroying my bags! WTF BROS