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I am sad to report that in South Korea, which produces fission power very well and does excellent fusion research, the leading anti-nuclear activist (also a mem
by sanxiyn 5y ago
I am sad to report that in South Korea, which produces fission power very well and does excellent fusion research, the leading anti-nuclear activist (also a member of congress) is vocally against fusion and already proposed to cut 100% of fusion research budget in 2018. (People thought that's too extreme so she haven't repeated it so far, but I don't think her position changed in any way.)
- ncmncm 5y agoBeing against wasting tax money is a principled stance. There is no possibility of current work leading to practical power on a time scale of less than multiple decades, and even then only if a mostly aneutronic form is achieved, which very few are working on.
- anonymousDan 5y agoThis is still not wasted money. We would all still be sitting around scratching our asses in caves with that attitude to scientific research.
- ncmncm 5y agoDoes fooling around with Tokamaks and stellarators count as scientific research? Certainly, containing fusing plasma magnetically requires developing a much better understanding than we now have of plasma fluid dynamics under conditions of high pressure and complicated, variable magnetic field geometry, but studying plasma fluid dynamics for itself does not need multi-billion dollar equipment. Nobody wants to give plasma physicists a dime just to learn about plasma, even though it would be fantastically cheaper than what is being done instead.