3 ms·

I spent some fair amount of years as both a government employee in DoD and then some years as a defense contractor amd I can tell you the military industrial co

I spent some fair amount of years as both a government employee in DoD and then some years as a defense contractor amd I can tell you the military industrial complex is a real thing. In my contracting days I worked with a handful of DoE engineers that were more familiar with reactor projects and as I understood it, reactor peojects basically follow the same type of workflow as any big DoD prohect. So OPs comment is much in line with my understanding of the issue. It is an unfortunate state of affairs.

willis936 5y ago
I've worked in fusion research and defense. MIC corruption and incompetance is quite high but virtually not present in the fusion research community. The researchers, you know, give a shit. They're not there to make a buck and milk the gravy train. If a machine gets greenlit then they pour everything into getting it to succeed because it might be the only research advancement greenlit in their life. Failure is always an option. Look at NCSX.
- ncmncm 5y ago
  The fusion researchers are not who would finance a fusion reactor. The people who finance those would be the ones financing fission plants, and then milking the project for as long as it can be made to run. Since nobody expects a fusion plant construction project to take less than 20 years and $50B after it is proved possible, they will be on it like flies.
- pfdietz 5y ago
  What the fusion research community has instead is people who have committed their careers or even lives to a particular field. Getting them to admit they made a mistake is very hard. What did Upton Sinclair say? "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." Most of them will rationalize as hard as they can for as long as they can. You sometimes see bitter comments when they are approaching or are in retirement.

willis936 5y ago

I've worked in fusion research and defense. MIC corruption and incompetance is quite high but virtually not present in the fusion research community. The researchers, you know, give a shit. They're not there to make a buck and milk the gravy train. If a machine gets greenlit then they pour everything into getting it to succeed because it might be the only research advancement greenlit in their life. Failure is always an option. Look at NCSX.

ncmncm 5y ago
The fusion researchers are not who would finance a fusion reactor. The people who finance those would be the ones financing fission plants, and then milking the project for as long as it can be made to run. Since nobody expects a fusion plant construction project to take less than 20 years and $50B after it is proved possible, they will be on it like flies.
pfdietz 5y ago
What the fusion research community has instead is people who have committed their careers or even lives to a particular field. Getting them to admit they made a mistake is very hard. What did Upton Sinclair say? "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." Most of them will rationalize as hard as they can for as long as they can. You sometimes see bitter comments when they are approaching or are in retirement.