A Dream of Clean Energy at a Very High Price

NY Times ^ | March 27,2017 | Henry Fountain

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SAINT-PAUL-LEZ-DURANCE, France — At a dusty construction site here amid the limestone ridges of Provence, workers scurry around immense slabs of concrete arranged in a ring like a modern-day Stonehenge.

It looks like the beginnings of a large commercial power plant, but it is not. The project, called ITER, is an enormous, and enormously complex and costly, physics experiment. But if it succeeds, it could determine the power plants of the future and make an invaluable contribution to reducing planet-warming emissions.

ITER, short for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (and pronounced EAT-er), is being built to test a long-held dream: that nuclear fusion, the atomic reaction that takes place in the sun and in hydrogen bombs, can be controlled to generate power.

First discussed in 1985 at a United States-Soviet Union summit, the multinational effort, in which the European Union has a 45 percent stake and the United States, Russia, China and three other partners 9 percent each, has long been cited as a crucial step toward a future of near-limitless electric power.

[proxy_user]

We used to have a lot of cold-fusion threads here, but this is the real deal. They're spending billions to try to get nuclear fusion working and provide unlimited power. It's not easy.

There are some interesting diagrams of how the thing is engineered at the article.

[butlerweave]

The Human Hamster Wheel of clean energy ?

[Red Badger]

(and pronounced EAT-er)

The only thing it eats is tax dollars....................

[dhs12345]

Cool stuff (I mean hot). Thanks!

[armourenthusiast]

I am also waiting for room temperature superconductors.

[alloysteel]

Price is a form of rationing.

Rationed energy is limited energy. Limited energy is a recipe for economic disaster.

Our current level of civilization is ENTIRELY dependent on the abundance of energy sources available, as it is the wellspring of all wealth and growth, and the fuel that serves the spinoff luxury and recreational industries. Poor people as defined in America are infinitely better off than any of these “enlightened” republics where energy production is limited or simply unavailable.

But think of how small their carbon footprint is. And that is a GOOD thing. < /sarcasm >

[Nifster]

Yeah sure thing...just like BIF is the real deal

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

I am also waiting for room temperature superconductors.

They've been 10 years away from reality for 20 years.

[Valk Rider]

Fusion has always been 15 to 25 years in the future.

[Two Kids' Dad]

BIF? What’s that?

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Mr. Fusion, where are you?

[Nifster]

Sorry small keyboard old eyes. Should have said NIF...the US effort at fusion

[Ozark Tom]

What is the acceptance level for producing energy that permanently removes the hydrogen equivalent component (<2.7 kg) of a 24-pack of liter sized bottled water per month of operation, in trade for a sustained co-generation of 10 kilowatt electric output plus heat at 30% efficiency? The Earth loses almost 11 metric tons of hydrogen into space per hour from the atmosphere, as a reference figure.

It's not nearly the theoretical energy conversion rate of a hydrogen fusion reactor; but, hydrogen is readily available within the solar system. Consider the possibility in the context of it not becoming the permanent energy solution, but the next stepping stone on the energy path, a grantor providing the time to work out an even better solution.