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All things work perfectly until they don't. We are at a stage of humanity right before fusion power becomes the norm anyway. No point using a short term solutio

All things work perfectly until they don't. We are at a stage of humanity right before fusion power becomes the norm anyway. No point using a short term solution where an accident makes land of the size of a city uninhabitable for 1000 years.

notfromhere 4y ago
There is little evidence to suggest we’re anywhere near fusion power.
- charlieyu1 4y ago
  Not 10-20 years maybe, but 50 years? Pretty high chance.
  - nippoo 4y ago
    We've been saying it's 50 years away for about 50 years... https://www.engineering.com/story/why-is-fusion-power-is-always-50-years-away https://www.engineering.com/story/why-is-fusion-power-is-alw...
    - charlieyu1 4y ago
      15 years ago AI was pretty much a dead end.
      - TimTheTinker 4y ago
        At our stage of world development, mathematical and algorithmic breakthroughs happen at a much faster pace than physical/mechanical breakthroughs.
      - afterburner 4y ago
        It's still not that impressive, more a result of computational power than anything fundamental.
    - lucb1e 4y ago
      Fusion milestones have been newly achieved in the past 10 years. You may be right that it'll remain "50 years away" for generations still, but it's not evident to me that this will be the case. We barely had fission energy stable 60 years ago, we now know a lot more about the requirements and limitations for fusion, and we're allegedly still saying 50 years? That's a lot more reliable, and note that n=2 here (a bit more than one set of fifty years having gone by, a second fifty being underway and it still seeming like that). If it were "always 10 years away" since the 50s, that'd be quite a different story.
  - Krssst 4y ago
    We would still need to go from 0W to 2-3TW production once we get actual generation; that's a lot of work planet-wide.
Georgelemental 4y ago
> where an accident makes land of the size of a city uninhabitable for 1000 years. It… really doesn't. Even someone with full control of a modern plant, who actively wanted to cause as terrible an accident as possible, would not be able to cause nearly that much damage. Meanwhile, fossil fuels are poisoning people right now
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
okamiueru 4y ago
> accident makes land of the size of a city uninhabitable for 1000 years Maybe just me, but I would gladly take that risk vs the whole world becoming uninhabitable due to global warming, not to mention the possible nuclear fallout from WW3 due to global unrest. The greatest political disappointment I've felt in recent years was when the Merkele government decided to shut down a bunch of Nuclear power-plants. It made up for it by burning coal.
- deepsun 4y ago
  Merkele government was played by Kremlin. The previous chancellor, Gerhard Schröder actively lobbied for Russia and had(has?) seats in Russian state-owned companies.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    >Merkele government was played by Kremlin. She (and Schroeder) wasn't some puppet put there by Putin, the German people voted for her, several times over actually. It's their fault and their responsibility for the choices they made. That's how democracy works. Next time choose your leaders more wisely, but sadly, I feel like no lessons have been learned in Germany and the voters will double down on their flawed ideology over reality.
    - c4mpute 4y ago
      Also, there is no choice in political parties with those issues. After Merkel went back on her promise to strengthen nuclear and changed her mind, there was no party left supporting nuclear power in Germany. The only option one has there is to vote for the far-right AfD (10-15%, shunned by all coalitions, so basically a wasted vote if not >40%) or the capitalist-liberal FDP (5-10%, currently part of the coalition in power, but too small to make a difference). So no matter what you vote for, it won't change anything.
      - deepsun 4y ago
        Do Germans vote for measures/provisions? In US voting for positions is only half, if not less, of the total ballot. The most interesting part is measures and provisions. BUT, it's only state and municipal provisions, there's no voting for nation-wide issues. The only country I know where there's a way to vote for particular issues is Switzerland.
BenFranklin100 4y ago
The era of practical fusion being deployed at scale is 50 years off no matter how exciting some may find the recent press releases.

notfromhere 4y ago

There is little evidence to suggest we’re anywhere near fusion power.

charlieyu1 4y ago
Not 10-20 years maybe, but 50 years? Pretty high chance.
- nippoo 4y ago
  We've been saying it's 50 years away for about 50 years... https://www.engineering.com/story/why-is-fusion-power-is-always-50-years-away https://www.engineering.com/story/why-is-fusion-power-is-alw...
  - charlieyu1 4y ago
    15 years ago AI was pretty much a dead end.
    - TimTheTinker 4y ago
      At our stage of world development, mathematical and algorithmic breakthroughs happen at a much faster pace than physical/mechanical breakthroughs.
    - afterburner 4y ago
      It's still not that impressive, more a result of computational power than anything fundamental.
  - lucb1e 4y ago
    Fusion milestones have been newly achieved in the past 10 years. You may be right that it'll remain "50 years away" for generations still, but it's not evident to me that this will be the case. We barely had fission energy stable 60 years ago, we now know a lot more about the requirements and limitations for fusion, and we're allegedly still saying 50 years? That's a lot more reliable, and note that n=2 here (a bit more than one set of fifty years having gone by, a second fifty being underway and it still seeming like that). If it were "always 10 years away" since the 50s, that'd be quite a different story.
- Krssst 4y ago
  We would still need to go from 0W to 2-3TW production once we get actual generation; that's a lot of work planet-wide.

Georgelemental 4y ago

> where an accident makes land of the size of a city uninhabitable for 1000 years. It… really doesn't. Even someone with full control of a modern plant, who actively wanted to cause as terrible an accident as possible, would not be able to cause nearly that much damage. Meanwhile, fossil fuels are poisoning people right now

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

okamiueru 4y ago

> accident makes land of the size of a city uninhabitable for 1000 years Maybe just me, but I would gladly take that risk vs the whole world becoming uninhabitable due to global warming, not to mention the possible nuclear fallout from WW3 due to global unrest. The greatest political disappointment I've felt in recent years was when the Merkele government decided to shut down a bunch of Nuclear power-plants. It made up for it by burning coal.

deepsun 4y ago
Merkele government was played by Kremlin. The previous chancellor, Gerhard Schröder actively lobbied for Russia and had(has?) seats in Russian state-owned companies.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  >Merkele government was played by Kremlin. She (and Schroeder) wasn't some puppet put there by Putin, the German people voted for her, several times over actually. It's their fault and their responsibility for the choices they made. That's how democracy works. Next time choose your leaders more wisely, but sadly, I feel like no lessons have been learned in Germany and the voters will double down on their flawed ideology over reality.
  - c4mpute 4y ago
    Also, there is no choice in political parties with those issues. After Merkel went back on her promise to strengthen nuclear and changed her mind, there was no party left supporting nuclear power in Germany. The only option one has there is to vote for the far-right AfD (10-15%, shunned by all coalitions, so basically a wasted vote if not >40%) or the capitalist-liberal FDP (5-10%, currently part of the coalition in power, but too small to make a difference). So no matter what you vote for, it won't change anything.
    - deepsun 4y ago
      Do Germans vote for measures/provisions? In US voting for positions is only half, if not less, of the total ballot. The most interesting part is measures and provisions. BUT, it's only state and municipal provisions, there's no voting for nation-wide issues. The only country I know where there's a way to vote for particular issues is Switzerland.

BenFranklin100 4y ago

The era of practical fusion being deployed at scale is 50 years off no matter how exciting some may find the recent press releases.