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If Asian countries are enthusiastically funding the research, why couldn't the US just license the technology after it is developed?
by ern 15y ago
If Asian countries are enthusiastically funding the research, why couldn't the US just license the technology after it is developed?
- uvdiv 15y agoHow would the director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory benefit from that?
- jrockway 15y agoVersion 2.0.
- hristov 15y agoWe could and we would end up much poorer than those Asian countries. They would make the licenses such that the majority of the benefit would go to them.
- bluedanieru 15y agoThat is exactly what would happen. Or we'd steal it. Either way the US is not on the cutting edge.
- rbanffy 15y agoWhy would anyone want to be on the cutting edge of a very uncertain technology development. I would believe the "It's 20 years away" figure if, 20 years ago, the same folks would have said we were 40 years away, instead of 20. I heard the 20 number a lot and I have seen very little actual progress beyond successive discoveries that the problem was much harder than they thought. Why not try to be on the leading edge of something with practical applications 5 years down the road (like the thorium cycle, for instance)?
- bluedanieru 15y agoWhy would anyone want to be on the cutting edge of a very uncertain technology development. To push forward the state of the art? Sure, you can wait for someone else to do it for you, but you give up quite a lot in doing so. Namely: you pay a premium for the technology having not taken the risk, you lack local expertise with the technology as it was developed externally, you will suffer knock-on effects in unrelated areas as research and development resources move to where there is demonstrated ease of funding. Note that you suffer the last one regardless of whether the investment is actually successful.
- rbanffy 15y agoMind you the "very uncertain" is the key part of what I said. At this point, commercial exploration of D+T and D+D fusion for energy generation is very doubtful. This is one of those cases where the expense seems disproportionate compared to the risky return. Betting on fusion without hedging the bets on, say, thorium fission, is a very risky investment to make. Remember that after achieving sustainable fusion on the required scales, you still have to deal with collecting the energy released in the form of fast neutrons and transforming it in something more manageable.