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It is quite exciting to see CFS' series B funding. I worry about commercializing too soon because companies need to turn a profit. The publicly funded fusion
by willis936 5y ago
It is quite exciting to see CFS' series B funding. I worry about commercializing too soon because companies need to turn a profit. The publicly funded fusion scientists and engineers are quite good at what they do and could efficiently spend money on research and new machines until the blueprint for a reactor is ready. The benefit of public programs is that they don't need to make quarterly profits and some problems are bigger than a year.
CFS has a path to be profitable even if they don't make a blueprint for reactors. Research needs high field magnets and they're positioning themselves to be the supplier of them.
- adamsmith143 5y ago> I worry about commercializing too soon because companies need to turn a profit Is this really the case though when Tech Startups routinely go public without ever turning a profit and with no clear vision on how they eventually will?
- willis936 5y agoI don't fully understand it, but I think the answer is usually some form of "attention economy". Also, I'm not sure how often startups get 1.8 Bn USD in series B. That sounds like a lot.
- ncmncm 5y agoIt is, anyway, a lot to waste. It is not unusual for very large investments to yield zero. Any Tokamak effort will necessarily be one of those, because operating a plant would cost far more than the similarly-rated fission plant, and those are markedly uncompetitive. But none of the money will vanish: every penny goes into a ready pocket.
- willis936 5y agoWhat an awfully easy to make take that offers no insight.
- ncmncm 5y agoIt explains how those boondoggles get the investment they do. A nuke industry without pervasive corruption would have very different economics. But corruption is very hard to root out, particularly when it has instead been made wholly legal.