Uh, so far no fusion design has even come close to break even in power, or been able to sustain a fusion reaction for a couple of seconds.
I wish we could have fusion soon but I don’t see it happening short of some huge engineering breakthrough.
Back in the 1970s, my grad school advisor, whose PhD thesis was, at that time, the second most-widely cited paper on a particular aspect of fusion (tokamak blankets), said that one had to have 20-20 vision before we saw a viable fusion plant, by which he meant it would be the year 2020.
While I have not been following developments in fusion technology closely, I don’t think that we are any closer to solving the engineering problems now than we were then.
I don’t see how this design addresses some imposing engineering problems.
Thank you! That’s what I thought when I read this:
“Perhaps the biggest roadblock to adopting fusion energy is that the economics haven’t penciled out.”
Well...that and the fact that it’s never been done.
It’s sort of the Obama concept of “leadership.” Just say something and it will happen.