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it specifically quoted a critic as saying that fusion was desirable ...Which is an absurd thing for that critic to say when even fusion's proponents admit that
by DabAsteroid 18y ago
it specifically quoted a critic as saying that fusion was desirable
...Which is an absurd thing for that critic to say when even fusion's proponents admit that even if it could be made to work, it would not likely be economically competitive.
- raganwald 18y agoWell, I think you may have a different definition of desirable. The exact quote from the article is: Nobel laureate in physics Pierre-Gilles de Gennes is once supposed to have said about the problem of fusion power in general, "We say that we will put the sun into a box. The idea is pretty. The problem is, we don't know how to make the box." I'm thinking that when a Nobel laureate in physics says that an idea is pretty, he is not suggesting that it is economically feasible or even workable. Nor is he saying that we should build it regardless, he is merely saying that it's an attractive idea, but technically impossible given what he knew when he said it.
- Retric 18y agoOr you can read it as: "We can't build it today so it's not useful today." Which is not the same thing as "Based on the known laws of physics this will never work."