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What about drilling for geothermal energy? And what about thermal fusion which is upcoming? For what do we need fission any longer, except to bridge the time up

What about drilling for geothermal energy? And what about thermal fusion which is upcoming? For what do we need fission any longer, except to bridge the time up to availability of fusion? As long there is no good concept for the nuclear waste, that long nuclear shouldn't be praised as solution to anything, except for bridging. There have been news on here, for a newly developed technique to "recycle" and/or to "treat" the nuclear waste by utilizing a collider. May be this is an solution for the nuclear industry? Safety of the power plants is, I think, comparably given by learnings of the accidents in history. Which shows quite a lot of incidences.. It's difficult. Me dunna want to have the power to decide on here.

BrandoElFollito 5y ago
Nuclear fusion is upcoming for 30 years and we did tiny steps so far. Except if there is a breakthrough, it will take so much time (if it works at all) that we will need new nuclear plants. The safety and ecology of nuclear plants has been discussed to death. I much prefer to live near a nuclear plant than anything combustion.
kergonath 5y ago
> And what about thermal fusion which is upcoming? Fusion is great, and we are making good progress. It could plausibly change everything in a couple of decades. But it is not available today, so we cannot rely on it. That’s the thing when you follow the latest r&d developments: we talk about a technology well before it is useable, so all we can use at a given moment are mature technologies that are old news. Example with fusion: we’ve been talking about ITER for 20 years, but it’s not finished building yet. Other developments like spherical tokamaks and stellarators are nowhere near prototypes at the industrial scale. If we are serious about climate change, we need to act now, which means putting in place solutions based on technologies that are already mature and useable. Waiting 10 years for the next fancy energy source with blockchain, or the mythical carbon capture solution (which cannot possibly work with anything resembling the current markets) is reckless. > There have been news on here, for a newly developed technique to "recycle" and/or to "treat" the nuclear waste by utilizing a collider. There are much better and cheaper ways of doing that, using breeder reactors. We’re further along the readiness path than with fusion, but they still require some engineering before we can build them.
- catlikesshrimp 5y ago
  For me, until something is commercially available, it is not available. Development is unpredictable, research is even a wild card.
  - kergonath 5y ago
    Definitely. It’s most of the time fait to say that it will be available some day, but there always are a lot of kinks to iron out between the scientific idea and the useable implementation.
- theGeatZhopa 5y ago
  Yes.. it's just, the times changed. ITER has been planned a long time ago (narrator makes a gesture of a looooong beard) Just the findings of warm superconductors in 2018, let the development advance in much more speeedy manner. Atm, approx 40 startups (yes, most of them are new and poshy) have been founded, which already are building demonstrations and most of them are in stealth Modus. Others are already valued with 5 Billions getting a lot of venture. Chinese are just about to get it done - one's even don't hear anything about that here. The British having good progress. But, me personally, I'm placing my odds on MIT having functional Demonstrator by 2025. I'm looking forward. BITCOIN mining for less than a penny :)

BrandoElFollito 5y ago

Nuclear fusion is upcoming for 30 years and we did tiny steps so far. Except if there is a breakthrough, it will take so much time (if it works at all) that we will need new nuclear plants. The safety and ecology of nuclear plants has been discussed to death. I much prefer to live near a nuclear plant than anything combustion.

kergonath 5y ago

> And what about thermal fusion which is upcoming? Fusion is great, and we are making good progress. It could plausibly change everything in a couple of decades. But it is not available today, so we cannot rely on it. That’s the thing when you follow the latest r&d developments: we talk about a technology well before it is useable, so all we can use at a given moment are mature technologies that are old news. Example with fusion: we’ve been talking about ITER for 20 years, but it’s not finished building yet. Other developments like spherical tokamaks and stellarators are nowhere near prototypes at the industrial scale. If we are serious about climate change, we need to act now, which means putting in place solutions based on technologies that are already mature and useable. Waiting 10 years for the next fancy energy source with blockchain, or the mythical carbon capture solution (which cannot possibly work with anything resembling the current markets) is reckless. > There have been news on here, for a newly developed technique to "recycle" and/or to "treat" the nuclear waste by utilizing a collider. There are much better and cheaper ways of doing that, using breeder reactors. We’re further along the readiness path than with fusion, but they still require some engineering before we can build them.

catlikesshrimp 5y ago
For me, until something is commercially available, it is not available. Development is unpredictable, research is even a wild card.
- kergonath 5y ago
  Definitely. It’s most of the time fait to say that it will be available some day, but there always are a lot of kinks to iron out between the scientific idea and the useable implementation.
theGeatZhopa 5y ago
Yes.. it's just, the times changed. ITER has been planned a long time ago (narrator makes a gesture of a looooong beard) Just the findings of warm superconductors in 2018, let the development advance in much more speeedy manner. Atm, approx 40 startups (yes, most of them are new and poshy) have been founded, which already are building demonstrations and most of them are in stealth Modus. Others are already valued with 5 Billions getting a lot of venture. Chinese are just about to get it done - one's even don't hear anything about that here. The British having good progress. But, me personally, I'm placing my odds on MIT having functional Demonstrator by 2025. I'm looking forward. BITCOIN mining for less than a penny :)