DOE announces $180M, new strategy to accelerate path to commercial-based fusion

[Marlin]

DOE announces $180M, new strategy to accelerate path to commercial-based fusion energy

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/biden-administration-180-million-fusion-energy-FIRE-doe/718304/

[GLW]

.....The development of large-scale fusion energy resources may be a decade or more away, but DOE and others have made significant progress maturing the technology in recent years and the Biden administration wants to keep that momentum going...

fusion is always tens years away,....

https://www.nukeworker.com/forum/index.php/topic,21757.0/all.html#quickreply

then again, the research money is right here and now,...

for 80 years the research money has fueled the careers and lucrative retirements of hundreds of academia researchers,...

that's about three generations of the smartest people on earth bilking the lowly people of earth with promises of a future of unicorns and rainbows that is always just ten years away,...

the geoacademiapolitical pedagogy keeps on funding it's above average standard of living,....

organized religion has nothing on these soothsayers and dream weavers,...

[fiveeleven]

Well done sir. I was wondering when you would respond to the fusion dribble that has been flowing again recently."geoacademiapolitical pedagogy" fueled by soohtsayers and dreamweavers hawking rainbows and unicorns to the serfs like Orex PC's. Again - well done!

[Marlin]

Well done sir. I was wondering when you would respond to the fusion dribble that has been flowing again recently."geoacademiapolitical pedagogy" fueled by soohtsayers and dreamweavers hawking rainbows and unicorns to the serfs like Orex PC's. Again - well done!

It's news and there are some very smart and wealthy people involved. "If man were meant to fly, he would have wings."

[fiveeleven]

As would pigs.

[Marlin]

As would pigs.

That would be bioengineering. 

[Marlin]

Well done sir. I was wondering when you would respond to the fusion dribble that has been flowing again recently."geoacademiapolitical pedagogy" fueled by soohtsayers and dreamweavers hawking rainbows and unicorns to the serfs like Orex PC's. Again - well done!

I would agree with you and GLW if it was only the DOE funding the effort. Right now, there is a significant amount of private funding including some small almost garage sized startups. Anything that is popular PC will get government funding, but private money is another thing. There has even been a contract signed to power a data center with fusion. Fusion has a lot of incidental science in lasers, plasmas, and materials advancements that will have applications in other technologies. There are incremental advancements that have prompted private financing. I prefer a maybe as opposed to a draconian no.

[fiveeleven]

How many synchronized rapid fire lasers fit in the average garage? No overly harsh or cruel rules/laws in the mix here, so draconian is out. More like observational pessimism.

[Marlin]

How many synchronized rapid fire lasers fit in the average garage? No overly harsh or cruel rules/laws in the mix here, so draconian is out. More like observational pessimism.

Pessimism is healthy.  The small startups are all confinement fusion. Large facilities are exploring laser ignition especially after some success at the US National Ignition Facility. It was repeated and confirmed even though the energy expended by the lasers exceeded the gain in energy on the target it was because the target was the shield around the target. The energy delivered to the target from secondary energy is what was used to determine the energy gain. Thought I should put that in there because the common opposition used the laser energy on the shield vice to the target. There is now a separate effort on a facility designed for fusion energy as opposed to one designed for weapons study. Time will tell. There is broad range of confinement style fusion reactors in development from the large ITER to the small startups I reference.

[fiveeleven]

It would appear that your fusion knowledge is advanced. Mine on the other hand, would be limited to being able to reasonably explain the H2/H3 reaction to a class of general employees. My meager knowledge of the subject has been gleaned basically from this websites postings.

[Marlin]

It would appear that your fusion knowledge is advanced. Mine on the other hand, would be limited to being able to reasonably explain the H2/H3 reaction to a class of general employees. My meager knowledge of the subject has been gleaned basically from this websites postings.

It's all good "we're all Bozos on this bus" Fire Sign Theater If you are old enough to have heard them.