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ITER isn't all it's cracked up to be. Certainly some senior fusion scientists don't believe so: https://thebulletin.org/2018/02/iter-is-a-showcase-for-the-dra
by DrBazza 6y ago
ITER isn't all it's cracked up to be. Certainly some senior fusion scientists don't believe so: https://thebulletin.org/2018/02/iter-is-a-showcase-for-the-drawbacks-of-fusion-energy/ https://thebulletin.org/2018/02/iter-is-a-showcase-for-the-d...
- ClumsyPilot 6y agoOnly half way through the article, but the issue does not appear to be that ITER project in praticular has a glaring flaw. Rather, the scientist appears to be sceptical of fusion as a near term practical energy source on the whole. I feel that humanity will never amount to anything without fusion. Energy requirements of space travel assure of that.
- pfdietz 6y agoDT fusion is bad for space travel. The reactors are simply too large, and burn only a small fraction of their mass in fuel before they are too damaged to continue. ITER, for example, if it could be operated continuously forever (it cannot) would take 300,000 years to fuse its own mass in fuel.
- hu3 6y agoI see DT fusion as a stepping stone to evolution. It doesn't have to be the answer for space travel or even Earth's clean energy. If within a few thousand years we managed to go from illiteracy to studying fusion, I'm hopeful of what can be achieved within the next few thousand years.
- pfdietz 6y agoEvolution explores huge numbers of dead ends. So if we go with that metaphor, the most likely fate of fusion is failure and extinction.
- ClumsyPilot 6y ago"would take 300,000 years to fuse its own mass in fuel." Most of ITER's mass is concrete in the building, are you including that?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- pfdietz 6y agoI was using the described ITER mass of 23,000 tonnes. The concrete structure around ITER contains 30,000 tonnes of rebar and 150,000 cubic meters of concrete.
- DrBazza 6y agoTokamaks are good for science and understanding the physics of plasmas, but seem to be particularly unfriendly to utilising the energy produced by fusion. The materials in the reactor become radioactive and need replacing frequently, diverting the heat out is tricky, but not impossible, as it is essentially a sealed ring. I certainly agree that fusion would be the biggest thing to happen to civilization. It would help us to clean this planet, and get to others.