Saudi Arabia’s wildly ambitious plan to build 500m tall, mirrored, 170km long parallel skyscrapers, forming a 1.5M population desert city has been curtailed to 2.4km long.

The news was broken by the financial news publication Bloomberg, which said that Saudi Arabia’s government had “scaled back its medium-term ambitions” for Neom, of which The Line is the most significant sub-project.

The Saudi government had hoped to have 1.5M residents living in The Line by 2030, but this has been scaled back to fewer than 300,000, according to the report. It is unclear how it intends to house a higher concentration of people considering the proposed length (and therefore area) has been massively slashed.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    So by “recent,” you meant 2022 and by “success,” you mean running 17 minutes.

    How long do you think you can power a city with those 17 minutes of fusion?

    Because my guess is around 17 minutes.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It’s a substantial leap in proof of concept. The previous record was 17s. They’re opening up all research that led to the success, with many scientists claiming potential for controlled applications within 20 years.

      Even improved harnessing and storage of 158M°F could allow the reactor to work in modulation. It’s a big deal in the science community.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        “Many scientists” like the ones who have been claiming that my entire life since the 1980s?

        Can you show me any of their peer-reviewed journal articles that say so?

        And considering your definitions of “recent” and “success” turned out to be a little on the untrue side, I’m not inclined to believe your “big deal” claim either.