5 ms·
The obstacles to exploitable fusion will not be overcome. There, I said it, I own it, come back and beat me with it if I turn out to be wrong. In order to see
by FrankWilhoit 11mo ago
The obstacles to exploitable fusion will not be overcome. There, I said it, I own it, come back and beat me with it if I turn out to be wrong.
In order to see this, by way of contradiction, suppose a stable, sustained reaction.
1. How much of the heat is exchanged, and how is the rest dissipated? (How would you design a conventional steam generator if the ignition temperature of coal or gas were millions of degrees?)
2. How refuel? (Stars don't need to refuel: how far down does that scale?)
3. How small a breach of containment would destroy the apparatus?
- leephillips 11mo agoI think you're right, but for different reasons: http://progressive.org/op-eds/let-cut-our-losses-on-fusion-energy-180313/ http://progressive.org/op-eds/let-cut-our-losses-on-fusion-e...
- FrankWilhoit 11mo agoQuite so; there is a stable fusion reactor 93 million miles away (the closest good, safe distance), of whose output we could be harvesting much more than we are.