It has been my understanding that all our fusion plants use more energy than they produce. If this is still the case, why waste the money on a huge plant; do smaller experimental ones to try to figure it out first.
“It has been my understanding that all our fusion plants use more energy than they produce. If this is still the case, why waste the money on a huge plant; do smaller experimental ones to try to figure it out first.”
Big Science needs it’s mega-projects, I guess. I’d like to think that they might actually achieve a net energy output, but I get the feeling that in the end all we will be left with is a pyramid.
Everyone hopes for it, but trumpeting about the next great thing just to have it wither away in reality is diminishing the fusion crowd's credibility when a new announcement comes.
The explanation in the tenth paragraph of the article is simple, concise, and accurate:
“Studies of tokamaks of different sizes and configurations have always pointed to the same message: To contain a plasma and keep it hot, bigger is better. In a bigger volume, hot particles have to travel farther to escape. Today’s ... “