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> As far as I understand, it's a problem of funding and bureaucracy problems rather than technology. No, it's very much a problem of technology. One of the cha

by adwn 11y ago

> As far as I understand, it's a problem of funding and bureaucracy problems rather than technology. No, it's very much a problem of technology. One of the challenges of most fusion approaches is that we don't have materials that survive the heavy neutron bombardment from the fusion process for very long. You don't simply solve this through more funding (although it helps). Another problem is that we still haven't managed to build a fusion device that delivers even close to break-even energy return, not even under laboratory conditions for very short timespans. > cheap That is doubtful. Fusion reactors with the ITER concept are extremely large and complex devices. Note that I'm not against fusion in general. In fact, I think we should fund research in alternative fusion technologies a lot more than we do now.

Ygg2 11y ago
> No, it's very much a problem of technology. Well, you can't make technology without funding and time. But given enough of both, its definitely achievable. There is nothing scientific preventing us from creating fusion reactor. Perhaps I misspoke, but the thing is, the main issue is funding, you can't expect research without funding. If the project was well funded, we'd probably have it by now. > cheap Cheap as in resources required to produce energy. Not cheap to make. By same measure how much infrastructure you need to mine, transport and make a power plant.
- arethuza 11y ago
  Fuel costs for fission nuclear plants are only about 28% of operating costs - so why should fusion plants be hugely cheaper than fission plants? The capital costs for something based on ITER look they might be comparable to fission plants - I guess decommissioning and waste handling might be cheaper though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_plants#Fuel_costs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_pla...
  - Ygg2 11y ago
    Well, large parts of operating costs of a fission nuclear power plant is getting rid of the radioactive waste and shutting it down safely. With fusion, due to nature of the process, and the fact that the reaction isn't self sustaining the prices could be lower. The big reason is that fusion produces less radioactive waste and doesn't cause a meltdown when a breach happens. Yes, neutron bombardment happens, and it makes stuff more radioactive but IIRC the half time is lower and the shielding could be optimized to have low half-life time.

by adwn 11y ago

Ygg2 11y ago

> No, it's very much a problem of technology. Well, you can't make technology without funding and time. But given enough of both, its definitely achievable. There is nothing scientific preventing us from creating fusion reactor. Perhaps I misspoke, but the thing is, the main issue is funding, you can't expect research without funding. If the project was well funded, we'd probably have it by now. > cheap Cheap as in resources required to produce energy. Not cheap to make. By same measure how much infrastructure you need to mine, transport and make a power plant.

arethuza 11y ago
Fuel costs for fission nuclear plants are only about 28% of operating costs - so why should fusion plants be hugely cheaper than fission plants? The capital costs for something based on ITER look they might be comparable to fission plants - I guess decommissioning and waste handling might be cheaper though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_plants#Fuel_costs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_pla...
- Ygg2 11y ago
  Well, large parts of operating costs of a fission nuclear power plant is getting rid of the radioactive waste and shutting it down safely. With fusion, due to nature of the process, and the fact that the reaction isn't self sustaining the prices could be lower. The big reason is that fusion produces less radioactive waste and doesn't cause a meltdown when a breach happens. Yes, neutron bombardment happens, and it makes stuff more radioactive but IIRC the half time is lower and the shielding could be optimized to have low half-life time.