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IMO, a massive investment and proliferation of fusion reactors is humanity's last hope. Assuming it isn't already too late.

_Microft 5y ago
Are they any faster to build than fission reactors? If not, we can as well start building fission reactors instead of having to get the technology right and then to build them. (If you insist on a type of nuclear power.)
jeffbee 5y ago
We could build the optically-coupled ground stations for the gravity-confined fusion power source around which our planet orbits at a small cost and within a few years.
- asimpletune 5y ago
  Can you explain this more?
  - _Microft 5y ago
    That's solar power.
  - jeffbee 5y ago
    It kinda spoils the joke, but OK. The Sun is a self-sustaining fusion plasma that already exists. It is confined by its own gravity. It will continue running at a steady state for billions of years. Except for melanomas, this source of power is completely harmless to human life. In order to plug this thing into the electric grid, all we need to do is capture the free electromagnetic emissions of the Sun. We already have this technology, called a photovoltaic cell. The production of such cells is an industrial engineering problem. There are no technological barriers. Compare to "fusion power", for which the ignition, confinement, and exploitation of the energy are all totally unsolved technological problems.
- honkycat 5y ago
  My understanding is that we cannot scale that to meet our electricity needs, and we need to keep the lights on when it is dark outside. Due to this, solar isn't good enough. ( Though should certainly be part of the plan. ) I could be wrong though, I'm not an expert.
  - jconnop 5y ago
    The sun is always shining somewhere on earth, so maybe it's possible [1] to connect all our grids together and transmit power from the light side to the dark side. Whether this is cheaper than buffering the power in huge energy storage systems, I have no idea. [1] https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/lets-build-a-global-power-grid https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/lets-build...
    - jeffbee 5y ago
      The choice is between systems we know how to build right now and imaginary systems that may not ever materialize.

_Microft 5y ago

Are they any faster to build than fission reactors? If not, we can as well start building fission reactors instead of having to get the technology right and then to build them. (If you insist on a type of nuclear power.)

jeffbee 5y ago

We could build the optically-coupled ground stations for the gravity-confined fusion power source around which our planet orbits at a small cost and within a few years.

asimpletune 5y ago
Can you explain this more?
- _Microft 5y ago
  That's solar power.
- jeffbee 5y ago
  It kinda spoils the joke, but OK. The Sun is a self-sustaining fusion plasma that already exists. It is confined by its own gravity. It will continue running at a steady state for billions of years. Except for melanomas, this source of power is completely harmless to human life. In order to plug this thing into the electric grid, all we need to do is capture the free electromagnetic emissions of the Sun. We already have this technology, called a photovoltaic cell. The production of such cells is an industrial engineering problem. There are no technological barriers. Compare to "fusion power", for which the ignition, confinement, and exploitation of the energy are all totally unsolved technological problems.
honkycat 5y ago
My understanding is that we cannot scale that to meet our electricity needs, and we need to keep the lights on when it is dark outside. Due to this, solar isn't good enough. ( Though should certainly be part of the plan. ) I could be wrong though, I'm not an expert.
- jconnop 5y ago
  The sun is always shining somewhere on earth, so maybe it's possible [1] to connect all our grids together and transmit power from the light side to the dark side. Whether this is cheaper than buffering the power in huge energy storage systems, I have no idea. [1] https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/lets-build-a-global-power-grid https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/lets-build...
  - jeffbee 5y ago
    The choice is between systems we know how to build right now and imaginary systems that may not ever materialize.