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That seems like a just-so story to me. It's not like all the smaller fusion research programs stopped existing, the US for example still had the NIF running in
by phreeza 5y ago
That seems like a just-so story to me. It's not like all the smaller fusion research programs stopped existing, the US for example still had the NIF running in parallel, with substantial funding. It's just that it appears that a very large scale project is needed to get above unity fusion with the tocamac approach.
- credit_guy 5y agoI seem to remember that NIF is focused on nuclear weapons research. Which very likely means that most of the results they produce are highly classified, so of limited usefulness for the rest of the world's scientific community.
- phreeza 5y agoSure that is their main focus but I think they also have a fusion power component in their research. The point was more generally that the inception of ITER did not mean the end of all other smaller fusion research programs, as Zubrin seems to imply.