MIT takes a page from Tony Stark

[Marlin]

MIT takes a page from Tony Stark, edges closer to an ARC fusion reactor

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3028113/sustainable-it/mit-takes-a-page-from-tony-stark-edges-closer-to-an-arc-fusion-reactor.html

[Mounder]

Some of the bloggers below the article bring up good points about the funding cuts.  The fact that gas is $1.39/gallon for the moment is part of it, but it can't last. Americans will rise up to burn off the surplus oil reserves. We always have. The prototype deserves funding.  I've seen a lot of projects at the national labs that have lesser funding value than the MIT prototype reactor. Ideally, I'd have the MIT fusion project set up at INEL or BNL.

[GLW]

Some of the bloggers below the article bring up good points about the funding cuts.....

the bloggers below,...

fusion has been getting hundreds of billions collectively for 60 years plus,...

no fewer than 50 PhDs currently at MIT, plus the hundreds of others scattered across several national labs, plus the international attempts, not including the USSR which invested rubles and scientists untold, have not been able to bring fusion to fruition for six decades plus,....

the Manhattan Project went from empty land to Hiroshima in 6 years and 26 billion dollars (corrected for 2016, 2 billion in the 1940s),...

either fusion is too difficult for success, or "other priorities" are being satisfied first,...

as for the notions of limitless hydrogen, abundant lithium, plentiful nitrogen, et al,...

that's what they always say, until it runs low or the byproducts of refining and production become their own legacy issue needing more cleanup, conservation measures, et al,...

we are 20 trillion dollars in debt,...

let's get our fiscal house stabilized and our infrastructure reset before we take another great, expensive leap into the always "just around the corner and 5 billion more dollars" future,...

if what we currently have goes off grid for more than three days the urban part of our society (more than 50% currently) begins slipping into chaos and anarchy,...

too many of those national labs and MIT'ish centers of knowledge repositories are in those same volatile urban centers,...

stability first, great leaps forward second,...

peace,...GLW,...

[Marlin]

the bloggers below,...

fusion has been getting hundreds of billions collectively for 60 years plus,...

no fewer than 50 PhDs currently at MIT, plus the hundreds of others scattered across several national labs, plus the international attempts, not including the USSR which invested rubles and scientists untold, have not been able to bring fusion to fruition for six decades plus,....

the Manhattan Project went from empty land to Hiroshima in 6 years and 26 billion dollars (corrected for 2016, 2 billion in the 1940s),...

either fusion is too difficult for success, or "other priorities" are being satisfied first,...

as for the notions of limitless hydrogen, abundant lithium, plentiful nitrogen, et al,...

that's what they always say, until it runs low or the byproducts of refining and production become their own legacy issue needing more cleanup, conservation measures, et al,...

we are 20 trillion dollars in debt,...

let's get our fiscal house stabilized and our infrastructure reset before we take another great, expensive leap into the always "just around the corner and 5 billion more dollars" future,...

if what we currently have goes off grid for more than three days the urban part of our society (more than 50% currently) begins slipping into chaos and anarchy,...

too many of those national labs and MIT'ish centers of knowledge repositories are in those same volatile urban centers,...

stability first, great leaps forward second,...

peace,...GLW,...

    I hate to make the comparison because I think there is probably a light at the end of the tunnel for fusion however small, but like Anthropogenic Global Warming it is a jobs program for universities and scientists. Politics and money are the drivers more than the science, consensus science can be the building blocks of knowledge and the muffler for innovation of the individual. Could Einstein flourish in a scientific environment that would ignore a patent clerk.

[Mounder]

it makes more fiscal sense to fund this than chasing the shadow of the God Particle at CERN.  just saying

[GLW]

it makes more fiscal sense to fund this than chasing the shadow of the God Particle at CERN.  just saying

okay, I'll concede that,...

So, in my paradigm:

god particle - a big "maybe some day" after fusion has restored inexpensive energy to the entire planet and freed billions from the drudgery of stoking brushwood fires and has opened up the future to Star Trek and beyond utopia,...

fusion - the near horizon goal after the foundation for this great leap forward has been reset,...

fix the current mess first,....

[SloGlo]

hour country could take the fusion capital, invest inn fuel reprocessing, sight that on land licensed fore decommished nukes, and makes fission moor cost effective.