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Fusion: Ten Times More Expensive Than Nuclear Power
- ncmncm 5y agoAgree, there will never be so much as one solitary erg of commercially viable energy from neutron-emission fusion. Thus, every penny spent on it is, in effect, stolen from actually-viable projects, including just building out solar and wind energy extraction, energy-storage, and (eventually) liquid-hydrogen aviation fuel infrastructure. That is not to say fusion will never be useful: as aneutronic spacecraft propulsion, fusing deuterium with He3 to emit ions at extreme velocity, it might be the way of the future. That is, provided we find a good way to synthesize He3. (No, we will not mine it.) The only product of any value from the countless $billions spent chasing that ghost is a generation of plasma physicists not afraid to say, "plasma fluid dynamics". (Most physicists can barely bring themselves to mention MHD, its artificially well-behaved baby brother.)