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This company wants to turn a Tennessee coal plant into a fusion reactor
Electrek ^ | 21 FEB 2024 | Jameson Dow

Posted on 02/21/2024 9:07:15 PM PST by Red Badger

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1 posted on 02/21/2024 9:07:15 PM PST by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

Will not produce any usable energy for over 100 years if ever.


2 posted on 02/21/2024 9:11:02 PM PST by Skwor
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To: Red Badger

Subsidy farming. Perfect model, since they don’t have to actually produce anything useful for ????? years.


3 posted on 02/21/2024 9:30:40 PM PST by Chad C. Mulligan
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To: Red Badger

Sounds like they should just fire up that coal plant again. Would be way cheaper and more useful. Just install a SCR to help control emissions and you’re good to go.


4 posted on 02/21/2024 9:47:25 PM PST by vpintheak (Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. )
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To: Red Badger
The author just HAD to squeeze in Debbie Downer Woke BS: “
…but like everything else, this only works if the benefits are properly distributed, and our current sociopolitical systems aren’t all that great at doing that.”
Isn’t it enough to just provide everybody with affordable, reliable electricity? I spent over 35 years in the power biz and that’s what we did. Not ONCE did any of us sit around pondering if “the benefits [we were producing were] properly distributed or if “our sociopolitical system was doing that properly.” Nope. We all had tough jobs to do delivering volts and amps 24x7.
5 posted on 02/21/2024 9:54:24 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (“Occupy your mind with good thoughts or your enemy will fill them with bad ones.” ~ Thomas More)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
And then the TVA guy said "TVA issues a reminder that the project is contingent on proper completion of necessary environmental reviews, permits, operating licenses and so on."

Which has hamstrung NASA into a paralyzed non-player compared to the private sector. Allowing bureaucracy to wrap red tape over this project kills it before it even has a chance.

I sincerely hope President Trump luck trimming these parasites away from scientific progress and our tax dollars.

6 posted on 02/22/2024 4:15:49 AM PST by MikelTackNailer (We can never stop failing for the minute we do, we fail.)
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To: Red Badger
"commercialize fusion power – and maybe even find a neat way to use old EV batteries to help power the process"

dont't forget old beer cans and banana peels ... after all, like old EV batteries, beer cans and banana peels contain atoms and stuff that can be fused ...


7 posted on 02/22/2024 5:48:09 AM PST by catnipman (A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil)
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

But if they do produce something —then the federal investment was well worth the risk—and a bountiful payoff to tax payers.

This is the sort of things that’s on par with the way the founders made investments early on in the republic. Only then, they would do things like make rivers navigable. Doing so would lower the cost trade and benefit american citizens.

lowering the cost of energy byo fusion would similarly benefit american citizens.


8 posted on 02/22/2024 6:58:59 AM PST by ckilmer
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

But if they do produce something —then the federal investment was well worth the risk—and a bountiful payoff to tax payers.

This is the sort of things that’s on par with the way the founders made investments early on in the republic. Only then, they would do things like make rivers navigable. Doing so would lower the cost trade and benefit american citizens.

lowering the cost of energy byo fusion would similarly benefit american citizens.


9 posted on 02/22/2024 6:59:01 AM PST by ckilmer
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To: Skwor
"Will not produce any usable energy for over 100 years if ever."

When has anyone produced energy that wasn't usable?

10 posted on 02/22/2024 8:22:10 AM PST by threefinger
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To: threefinger

The comment goes to the pipe dream that is fusion energy in any time less than 100 years.

What was your comment trying to say?


11 posted on 02/22/2024 10:15:32 AM PST by Skwor
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To: ckilmer
This is the sort of things that’s on par with the way the founders made investments early on in the republic. Only then, they would do things like make rivers navigable.

Help me to remember an instance of federal investment in ANY infrastructure prior to Lincoln's subsidies to the transcontinental railroads. Which were jerry-built and unprofitable, except for the Northern Pacific, which took no subsidies.

12 posted on 02/22/2024 11:06:24 AM PST by Chad C. Mulligan
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

I asked AI: list the infrastucture projects which received federal help before 1860.

Answer
Prior to 1860, the federal government provided assistance for various infrastructure projects, including:

Roads: The federal government funded the construction of roads, such as the Cumberland Road, a national highway that connected Cumberland, Maryland, and Vandalia, Illinois

Canals: Federal support was provided for the construction of canals, including the Erie Canal, which was a major waterway connecting the Great Lakes to the Hudson River

Rivers and Harbors: The government allocated funds for river and harbor projects to improve navigation and facilitate trade and transportation

Aids to Navigation: Investments were made in erecting lighthouses and other aids to navigation to ensure safe maritime transportation

These infrastructure investments were aimed at improving transportation, fostering economic growth, and promoting national unity


13 posted on 02/22/2024 11:14:23 AM PST by ckilmer
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To: ckilmer

Here’s are a couple articles on the subject
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructure_policy_of_the_United_States

https://eh.net/book_reviews/opening-the-west-federal-internal-improvements-before-1860/

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-american-political-development/article/abs/internal-improvements-and-the-union-17901860/3600F71EABC2CFC64CE08F66995F5B90

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-ushistory1/chapter/on-the-move-the-transportation-revolution/

https://study.com/learn/lesson/henry-clay-american-system-overview-analysis.html


14 posted on 02/22/2024 11:19:40 AM PST by ckilmer
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To: ckilmer

I’ve had a friend who doesn’t care about his internet security to “ask AI” about things I already knew. The answers were laughable. Ask your “AI” to be a bit more specific. Exactly what infrastructure project, what congressional appropriation, dates, etc.

Bonds for construction of the Erie Canal were backed by the government, but no money was expended. That I know. Coastal fortifications were funded under the military appropriation. But while promoters kept trying to get Congress to fund roads and canals before the Civil War, I can’t think of any that weren’t slapped down. The expenditure of public monies to support private profit was widely considered immoral. Something that was too close to the British custom of royal franchises.


15 posted on 02/22/2024 11:56:37 AM PST by Chad C. Mulligan
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To: ckilmer

OK, Cumberland Road, I’d forgotten that. But it provided an immediate tangible benefit, while this fusion project is pie-in-the sky, like the windmill and solar subsidies which have been either negative or have gone bankrupt, taking the federal subsidies with them.


16 posted on 02/22/2024 12:20:08 PM PST by Chad C. Mulligan
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

You will be right until you are wrong.

The payoff is on a scale you literally can’t imagine. The payoff basically will make the USA solvent despite terrible debts. The payoff will fund everyone’s social security 15 years from now and beyond. The payoff will enable a vast expansion wealth in the USA and worldwide.

imho the payoff makes it worth the investment.


17 posted on 02/22/2024 1:34:38 PM PST by ckilmer
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To: ckilmer
The payoff is on a scale you literally can’t imagine.

That's what they're still saying about wind and solar, LOL!

18 posted on 02/22/2024 3:15:55 PM PST by Chad C. Mulligan
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

They never said that about wind and solar. it was always about decarbonization.

fusion is about providing unbelievably cheap power at scale.


19 posted on 02/22/2024 6:12:22 PM PST by ckilmer
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To: ckilmer

Part of the subsidy farming business model is never to succeed. If you let that happen the subsidies go away. So it’s a cast iron certainty that there will never be a viable fusion power system in Tennessee or anywhere else.

I’m nearly 80. I won’t be around in 2040 to say “I told you so”. So I’ll say it now. >I.Told.You.So< Put that in your safety deposit box and take it out on Jan 1, 2040.

Now if they promised us a molten salt thorium reactor I’d be all over it. Cheap, safe, almost 100% waste free, creates its’ own fuel once you get it running..... It’s already been done once, and it’s easily scale-able. Thorium is plentiful; you can even extract it from coal.

But the subsidy farmers don’t like it. No long-term potential.


20 posted on 02/22/2024 6:50:37 PM PST by Chad C. Mulligan
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