Fusion Sparks an Energy Revolution

[Marlin]

Fusion Sparks an Energy Revolution

https://www.wired.com/story/fusion-sparks-an-energy-revolution/

[Rennhack]

According to the latest report by the Fusion Industry Association, over half of all fusion companies believe that fusion energy will be delivered to the public power grid during the 2030s. In May 2023, Microsoft signed a power purchase agreement with Helion Energy, to secure a supply of fusion-generated electricity by 2028. In August 2023, Marvel Fusion (a fusion energy firm the author cofounded) announced a partnership with Colorado State University worth $150 million, the largest public-private partnership to date, with the aim of building the only laser facility tailored to a commercial laser-based fusion technology and the most powerful short-pulse laser system in the world. With these advances and commitments in place, 2024 is set to show that fusion is no longer a distant dream but an achievable future of clean and sustainable energy.

Uh huh, just 10 more years... NukeWorker is now 25 years old.      And it's been 10 years away for 25 years.

"But this time it’s for real"... uh huh.  It's ALWAYS for real THIS time. There is always another stumbling block, and the goal post is always moved.

Harvesting fusion energy is only about 50% efficient, so we aren’t actually able to build a fusion reactor that would produce energy, we’re about halfway to a reactor that can run itself but not give off any power.
Commercial fusion power plants really are still > 30 years away.

[Marlin]

Uh huh, just 10 more years... NukeWorker is now 25 years old.      And it's been 10 years away for 25 years.

"But this time it’s for real"... uh huh.  It's ALWAYS for real THIS time. There is always another stumbling block, and the goal post is always moved.

Harvesting fusion energy is only about 50% efficient, so we aren’t actually able to build a fusion reactor that would produce energy, we’re about halfway to a reactor that can run itself but not give off any power.
Commercial fusion power plants really are still > 30 years away.

Et Tu Rennhack . The prize is too good to ignore is my simple answer. Economically accessible uranium resources for fission reactors could supply them for 200 years at current rates of consumption, and we are expanding, well in the rest of the world anyway. Oil is not well defined but is also finite and will become progressively more expensive to extract. So, if fusion is 100 years from now, I am good with that and if not, we are gaining scientific information applicable to other sciences.

 

[Rennhack]

Even civilian use of fission reactors on cruise chips is 15 years away, and we already have that technology.

[Marlin]

Even civilian use of fission reactors on cruise chips is 15 years away, and we already have that technology.

   I would counter with the flying car debate. https://www.nukeworker.com/forum/index.php/topic,38972.0.html The Jetsons aired in 1961 and people wanted them then. Only recently have we had vehicles that can be called as flying cars depending on your definition. Thats sixty years. I am not debating the time frame. I am even more pollyannish in that I think we may have mines on the moon for helium 3 to support fusion and that it may be a private party not the government.
   I prefer maybe and I don't know when people are investing their time and money and are much smarter and better educated on the subject.