5 ms·

20 years away. It's always 20 years away.

• pestatije 5y ago
  I thought it was 30 years, not 20.
  • ncmncm 5y ago
    Now it is never. The costs of alternatives to fusion are falling so fast that fusion cannot possibly ever catch up. Fusion was always going to be an extremely expensive source of power--much more than fission, which is itself not now competitive. Spend as much as you like on development, construction, maintenance, each dollar spent takes you farther from commercial competitiveness. Meanwhile, each dollar spent instead of on building out solar and wind brings climate catastrophe nearer. FRC D-He3 fusion might be a superb space drive. We don't know because dead-end Tokamak steals all the funding.
  • dredmorbius 5y ago
    20 is the new 30. (I also recall it being 30 years, for about the past 50.)