Re:How close is nuclear fusion power?
by ncmncm on Saturday October 02, 2021 @02:41PM
(#28730927)
Now it is never.
The costs of alternatives to fusion are falling so fast that fusion cannot possibly ever catch up.
Fusion was always going to be an extremely expensive source of power--much more than fission, which is itself not now competitive. Spend as much as you like on development, construction, maintenance, each dollar spent takes you farther from commercial competitiveness. Meanwhile, each dollar spent instead of on building out solar and wind brings climate catastrophe nearer.
FRC D-He3 fusion might be a superb space drive. We don't know because dead-end Tokamak steals all the funding.
The costs of alternatives to fusion are falling so fast that fusion cannot possibly ever catch up.
Fusion was always going to be an extremely expensive source of power--much more than fission, which is itself not now competitive. Spend as much as you like on development, construction, maintenance, each dollar spent takes you farther from commercial competitiveness. Meanwhile, each dollar spent instead of on building out solar and wind brings climate catastrophe nearer.
FRC D-He3 fusion might be a superb space drive. We don't know because dead-end Tokamak steals all the funding.