The pace of major breakthroughs has declined

Re:The pace of major breakthroughs has declined by ZenoArrow on Sunday October 11, 2015 @04:02PM (#10370696)

> "Counting R&D costs, plus the fact that it still doesn't work, implies an ROI that would make anyone agree."

The work on nuclear fusion is broader than the tokamak approach you're alluding to. All other forms of fusion have had far lower levels of investment.

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Re:The pace of major breakthroughs has declined by duaneb on Sunday October 11, 2015 @04:06PM (#10370716)

I'm not aware of any fusion reactor that has "broken even" with just collecting the energy investment. Until that happens, total efficiency for "nuclear fusion" is going to continue to plummet.

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Re:The pace of major breakthroughs has declined by ZenoArrow on Sunday October 11, 2015 @04:14PM (#10370749)

If some of the predicted timelines about excess energy generation from nuclear fusion turn out to be true then it'll work out to be cheaper than coal, even in the short-to-medium term after that goal is reached. It's too early to write such predictions off, unless you know something I don't know about the future.

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Re:The pace of major breakthroughs has declined by duaneb on Sunday October 11, 2015 @06:06PM (#10371282)

Ahh, this is what I was lookin for. Do you have a source for these predicted timelines? I'd like to dig in further. I wasn't even aware they existed.

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