4 ms·
The running joke is that it's always been 15-20 years away. Since 1960.
by rubidium 11y ago
The running joke is that it's always been 15-20 years away. Since 1960.
- Retric 11y agoNah, used to be 50-60 years ago, 20 years after that it was 40-50, then 20 years after that 30-40... Honestly, we could have working devices today. Funding has just been less than expected. Don't forget there was a ~30 year gap between JET and ITER. PS: There was also initial talks for ITER to be a working power plant, but it was significantly cheaper to downscale the device.
- lorenzhs 11y agoFrom what I understand it was the downscaling that politicians demanded to reduce costs that caused most of the cost increase. Lots of design parameters had to be changed as a result of it, new technologies developed to get things to work on the smaller scale, etc. There was also a lot of mismanagement in the beginning, with the Japanese management being completely new to the area (the director general was Japan's former ambassador to Croatia). Later, management was restructured several times and now people with experience in plasma physics are in charge. Source: A retired nuclear fusion physicist who was indirectly involved in ITER told me this.
- b34r 11y agoTime to call Elon Musk