Fusion power 'within reach'

BBC ^ | Monday, 1 October, 2001, 17:06 GMT 18:06 UK | Dr David Whitehouse

[RightWhale]

Just a few more decades. Just a few more generations of post-grad students. Tough to sell this kind of R&D while oil is still so cheap and plentifu.

[RightWhale]

Bump to: list

[Poohbah]

If we sold it as "defunding those freaks who fly airplanes into buildings," we might get it more quickly.

[ArcLight]

Funny thing is, a lot of enviros would probably be heartbroken if fusion can be made to work. Imagine a world where nearly pollution-free electric power really would be too cheap to meter. Their calls to "save the earth" by "simplifying our lives" would lose whatever plausibility they currently possess.

[boycott]

We have to stop sending Petro$$$ to the arabs.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Fusion power 'within reach'

Same headline about 40 years ago. Probably same headline 40 years hence.

[gcruse]

"Prosperity is just around the corner." Herbert Hoover, 1930.

[Willie Green]

"A plasma is a form of gas that has a great deal of free energy that is just looking for a way out," explained Dr Akers. "You could say that plasmas are like naughty children."

If that's the case, you can be sure that the Enviro-whackos will attack this technology with Ritalin.

[AFreeBird]

Tough to sell this kind of R&D while oil is still so cheap and plentifu.

... and under the control of possible hardline, extremist, states, or sponsors of terrorists.

I imagine the incentive for such research has gone up a bunch since 9/11/01

[Procyon]

No, they could charge that powerlines cause cancer, disorient migratory birds, encourage people to live in formerally inhospitable places... .

As long as there are people on this planet, the envirowackos will maintain there are too many people.

[lafroste]

I saw an intersting novel that may have some bearing on this. Check it out if you are so inclined.

[RightWhale]

I imagine the incentive for such research has gone up a bunch since 9/11/01

One might imagine so, but nothing has changed so far. [knock on wood]

Instead, research dollars are being diverted into hiring of warlords and other applied social science.

[bvw]

Pollution-free? Not quite using a tokamak -- the magnets, instruments and housing are huge and would pick up quite a rad dose. Maybe less pollution with other technologies like the laser/pellets -- or even with -- who knows -- estoteria stuff like cold-fusion effects.

[ArcLight]

Really? I thought fusion was relatively clean...thanks for the info. Yet it'd still be cleaner than dumping coalsmoke into the air.

[bvw]

The side effects of engineering these tokamaks may have had significant benefits though -- big magnets, high pulse voltages and currents power suply and breaker design.

[RightWhale]

The side effects of engineering these tokamaks

No doubt about it. Every step forward has required advances in electrical technology, materials science, mathematical modeling, and creative thinking. Every step forward so far has meant overcoming a barrier of some kind only to find a fresh barrier right behind it. 1000s of such small barriers have been overcome, and likely 1000s more will need to be overcome.

[537 Votes]

Fusion power 'within reach'

Same headline about 40 years ago. Probably same headline 40 years hence.

There's a story about a man whose cabin was infested by ants. One day, as an experiment, he placed a piece of cake on a plate in the middle of a washtub full of water. When he came back a few days later, he discovered that the ants had reached the cake -- by forming a bridge of dead ants from the rim of the wash tub to the cake in the center.

That's the way it is with scientific knowledge. Every time we fail, we get closer.

Remember the words: "Man will never fly!" They were true for thousands of years. Then they weren't.

[Vince Ferrer]

Funny thing is, a lot of enviros would probably be heartbroken if fusion can be made to work.

This has already happened. In the early days after Pons and Fleischmann announced they discovered cold fusion, a reporter asked a prominent head of an environmentalist organization what he thought about the promise of nearly unlimited clean fusion power, and he angrily replied that we had as much fusion power as we needed, in the sun.

[lds23]

I always did like Spyrogyra.

[Erasmus]

The side effects of engineering these tokamaks may have had significant benefits though -- big magnets, high pulse voltages and currents power suply and breaker design.

Alas, alas!
Too late, too late
For the Clinton shredders!