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A comment on US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved. Parent comment

Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by jboy55 on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @02:30PM (#33974428)
Its actually pretty good, since this is primarily weapons testing. The real money is being spent in the EU, where there is at least a chance of getting a sustainable fusion reaction.
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Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by davrosthedalek on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @02:56PM (#33974790)
It's, depending what calculation you believe, around 20 billion for ITER. Started in 2013, first plasma in 2025, first full fusion in 2035. So about a billion per year. Of course, costs are calculated differently, and I'm not sure on what time scale the 600 million are, but it's not that drastically different.

Research wise, it's a pretty big chunk of money. But yeah, more money in research would be nice. (Disclaimer: I am a scientist with grants.)

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Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by ZeKK14 on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @03:48PM (#33975540)
ITER is built in France, but is financed by many countries outside of EU, including the USA. It's not a huge cost per-country.

> the ITER Members China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States

See https://www.iter.org/proj/Countries

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Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by jboy55 on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @03:43PM (#33975454)
Yes, I think more research towards eventual power generation, rather than weapon testing, would be better.
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Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by jasonhansel on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @05:44PM (#33977274)
Not really. IIRC the NIF needs to pretend that it's about nuclear weapons to secure DoE funding; they (like us) know that it's really about developing fusion as an energy source.
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Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved by jboy55 on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @07:16PM (#33978243)
Or it needs to pretend its about fusion as an energy source, to mask its really about creating and maintaining a stockpile of h-bombs that could destroy every city on earth.
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