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Daniel Jassby is a tiresome crank. Always quoted in the media as the sole critic of fusion. He runs a website devoted to blowing things out of proportion. In
by baking 4y ago
Daniel Jassby is a tiresome crank. Always quoted in the media as the sole critic of fusion. He runs a website devoted to blowing things out of proportion. In this article, he says that SPARC and ITER will both achieve first plasma around the same date (2025) but that SPARC will take another ten years to burn DT fuel because ITER is taking ten years.
ITER is taking ten years because the equipment required for DT operation won't be installed until 2035, after their second maintenance shutdown. SPARC is intended to progress to DT operation as soon as possible after first plasma assuming all the equipment checks out.
He poo-poos tritium breeding, referring to an article he wrote 5 years ago about the faults of a solid blanket, neglecting to mention that the ARC design has been based on a liquid blanket.
If he wants to criticize the MIT/CFS SPARC/ARC design, he should by all means just go ahead and do so, but this lazy approach of his is just plain dumb and tiresome.
- thoms_a 4y agoI'm glad you saved me the effort of reading this article. I've been following fusion for years, and have been cautiously optimistic. Recently, with the progress of both Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Tokamak Energy, both startups with private funding which aim to develop commercially viable Tokamaks, I'm ready to throw caution to the wind. Tokamaks work, high temp superconductors work, and the combination is likely to result in working fusion reactors. If it doesn't, then at least we'll know soon enough via these two private companies. It doesn't make sense to write articles heckling companies which have literally put millions of dollars where their mouths are. Just let them get on with the work, and if they fail, they fail, and we learn something.