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As a technical answer: this is about the federal program, and SPARC isn't part of it, while ITER is. More practically, Commonwealth & other private fusion eff
by lambdatronics 6y ago
As a technical answer: this is about the federal program, and SPARC isn't part of it, while ITER is.
More practically, Commonwealth & other private fusion efforts have been advocating for (A) federal funds to be allocated to solving the thorny nuclear materials science issues common to (essentially) all fusion schemes (B) a NASA-COTS-inspired cost-share approach to building the eventual pilot plant. (Presumably the industry players would like to get federal support for building their pilot plants (like ARC), much the way SpaceX got support for Falcon 9 / Crew Dragon development.)
This plan reflects (A) for sure, and a step in the direction of (B). I was involved in the early stages of the community input to the plan. I think there's openness to increased partnership with industry like this.