Barriers to Fusion

Posted by Admin on Jul 05, 2006 at 05:37 AM
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Barriers in the Fusion Research Establishment

For researchers, barriers to progress come not so much from a lack of funding, but the fact that most of the funding goes to research on the tokamak.  The tokamak is a large, unwieldy and very expensive device that has consumed billions of dollars in research money and is still very far from achieving net energy. The estimates that “we will have fusion in ~50 years” are based on the progress of this conventional research.  For a detailed timeline of the 50 years, See the ITER website. The direct link to the timeline is:  http://www.iter.org/Strategy.htm

Spending all the research money on a single big 35-year long fusion experiment has been compared to building a single hospital to find a cure for cancer.  Researchers have strongly urged that fusion will progress faster if broad-based scientific research is emphasized, including funding for many different devices. 

But what’s wrong with funding one approach if that’s the best shot we have?  Shouldn’t we pool our resources?  For a thorough discussion of the specific problems in the conventional approach to fusion, see this comparison of conventional fusion and Focus Fusion.

Barriers in the General Public

When we ask people to consider the possibility that a cheap, clean, abundant, safe energy source may be just around the corner, we take it for granted that this is something people would want.  We are therefore constantly surprised by the objections that people throw out to us.  Some of these objections are personal, e.g., “Unlimited energy?!  That’s a terrible idea!  I hope you fail!”  Others are more passive, e.g., “I’d love to help but THEY won’t let fusion happen, so good luck with that.”  We have grouped these objections/barriers into the themes they seem to fall under:

1. Government-Corporate Conspiracy;
 
2. An alleged Human Doomsday Narrative which affects the human subconscious such that we collectively don’t want to solve energy problems (also known as the “unperceived need for unhappiness” or the “limited resources paradigm”);
 
3. An alleged Fear of Fusion.  Only bad things can come from too much power.  Like bombs!  Fear that fusion will destroy the world, city, what have you;
 
4. A simple Lack of Vision -  we haven’t taken the time to envision a fusion world.

Barriers are important and can’t be dismissed.  They have a tangible effect on action. If we want fusion, the barriers need to be explored or we won’t get past them.  In exploring the barriers, we often discover an underlying issue that needs to be brought to the surface.  It turns out that a barrier is often a way to buy time while one works on the underlying issue.

Government-Corporate Conspiracy

When we tell people that practical fusion may be just around the corner, a typical response is “THEY won’t let that happen.” A corollary of this is “I’m sure it’s already been done, and the government-corporation complex has the invention mothballed in a warehouse somewhere where it can never get out. Follow the money.” 

What we have here is an alleged conspiracy by big government and big corporations to suppress fusion.

The “government/corporate conspiracy” block is based on the premise that fusion is not in the best interest of large, centralized entities like governments or corporations (Hereinafter “GOV-CORP”). GOV-CORP would prefer that the invention not show up until after they’ve milked all the profit out of the oil fields and all the political advantage out of resources they control. Hence the vague “in 50 years we’ll have fusion” prediction conveniently coincides with estimates of the “end of oil”.

This alleged conspiracy could be active (fusion researchers mysteriously disappear! Fusion patents bought by sinister companies and hidden away in vaults!) or it could be passive (omissions, reduced funding, only providing funding for large-scale unwieldy projects that have no chance of success).

What’s promising about those who raise this scenario (I’m talkin’ to you) is that they have no objection to the concept that fusion can be done cheaper and that it can be ready NOW. Nevertheless, these folks take no action. Paralyzed by a sense of futility. You would think that said folks would want to stick it to The Conspirators and fund focus fusion to defeat the evil GOV-CORP cabal. Instead, the spectre of conspiracy and suppression is used as an excuse not to act.

Are we afraid that our names will be on a list and the G-men will get us for having funded fusion? Is there a chip in our brain preventing us from funding fusion? Have we internalized the oppressor?

Maybe there is a conflict of interest here. Practical fusion is a threat to the conspiracy itself. And the conspiracy is what is of value here.

The possibility of something changing the status quo upsets the balance of the conspiracy. If we are comfortable with the current conspiracies, why would we want things to change? To have fusion would mean that we would have to completely re-configure the conspiracy narrative. Just when we’ve warmed up and gotten the act down pat.

On some level the conflict of interest goes deeper.  That is, it gets more practical, and it needs to be addressed.  While it’s easy to deride governments and corporations, we realize that our fates are intertwined with their stability. Thus, no-one is in any rush to disrupt the status quo. We don’t want the system we’re in to experience any great shocks since it’s our livelihood at stake. This is a significant planning issue that needs to be thoroughly considered.

We here at the Focus Fusion Society can neither confirm nor deny the existence of GOV-CORP. What we do know is that should fusion be discovered, and especially in the simple, incredibly cheap and easily propagated method as proposed by the Focus Fusion society, the world is in for a very big change. There will be major ripples cascading throughout economies and institutions and governments. 

In the long run, this is a great thing!  We expect the benefits will be tremendous and that prosperity will spread throughout the world and that it will be “win-win”. In the short run, however, change is unsettling and people will want to avoid it.  Some major cheese-moving is going down.

It is therefore best to pre-emptively think about what the changes might be and who/which entities might be affected and how they can best mitigate/adapt to/take advantage of the changes. The question all entities need to ask is, “how can we best leverage fusion for everyone’s fun and profit?” And don’t forget to include “The Environment” as one of the entities for whom fusion is leveraged.

We have set up the Transition to Fusion page to begin exploring these issues. Please visit the page and add your comments.

Human Doomsday Narrative

It sometimes seems as if there is an unacknowledged doomsday narrative that humanity is acting out, a collective myth that we all play a part in. For some reason, many of us are very attached to this story.

The doomsday narrative is seen in the interpretations of some religious doctrines (“end of days” “apocalypse” “revelations”).  The general synopsis is:  “People are original sinners, doomed to foul things up on this planet even if their intentions are good.  Luckily, just as they are about to go up in a great ball of fire, God will show up and redeem them and the planet.  This redemption seems to involve a massive reduction in population (lots of people will go to hell) and the world will be destroyed, then replaced with a shiny new indestructible world by God (as per Revelation 21). The way to get people to transcend their sinful nature is through converting them to the true way - i.e., it requires some sort of conformity. “

The doomsday narrative has a strong corollary in the environmental movement.  In this case, the doom stems from a view of human progress as incompatible with nature and ultimately destructive.  The “original sin” seems to derive from the fact that people who live a modern life are not natural/are enemies of nature. They must transcend their base (consumer) nature - and reduce their population - or the world will be destroyed. The way to get them to transcend their base nature is through persuasion or regulation.”

Many things exist to support this narrative.  Evidence of doom is all around us - war in the Middle East about religion and/or about dwindling oil resources being the most obvious example. 

While it’s a terrible story that doesn’t end well for most people (unless you believe the God returning and fixing everything on the shiny new cube in space),

At the same time, 

More importantly, the existence of these views points to something else of value.

The environmental and religious sectors, and the brakes they apply with regards to some types of development, are an important part of the larger discussion of human progress.

On one level, these concerns have to do with the question of human worth and responsibility. Does humanity deserve the fruits of progress? Are people worthy of that progress? Can they handle the responsibility that comes with awesome power?

On another level, these concerns have to do with higher order relationships. With greater technological control over nature are we distancing ourselves from “nature” and “God”? Will all this progress simply lead to alienation from heaven and earth, so to speak? Will it destroy our humanity? Are we getting away with murder and consumerism? Are we becomming soulless cyborgs, plastic people, stem cell frankensteins in space?

The conversation doesn’t always get that far. The possibility of fusion is a threat because we haven’t answered those questions. It therefore seems best to reject fusion. This does, of course, give the impression that many among us don’t believe humanity deserves cheap, clean, unlimited energy because we’re sinful (religious interpretation) or we’ll over-consume and never learn how to live with nature in a more natural way (environmental interpretation).

In light of these barriers, there is much to be gained by discussing the theological and ecological dimensions of fusion and a world of unlimited resources. Please contact us with links, articles or comments on this topic. Just as the transition phase needs to address government, business and regional economic concerns, it also needs to address religious or environmentally themed issues.

NOTE: Another dimension of the human doomsday narrative has to do with general pessimism about resources. Perhaps we can call this one “cynical capitalism” or “communism”. This falls under “the rich get rich and the poor stay poor” narrative or the “zero sum game limited resources paradigm.” These are lingering issues because up until now they do seem to be the way the world works. Hopefully fusion can change all that, as we explain in the poverty section.

Fear of Fusion

Fear of Fusion is caricatured in many cheesy sci-fi movies. “Chain Reaction” with Keanu Reeves and “Spider-Man 2” with Doc Ock come to mind.  Let us be the first to reassure you that, unlike nuclear fission, there is no danger of a “chain reaction” with fusion. For one thing, it is much more difficult to get a fusion reaction to occur and to then sustain that reaction. It can never go out of control because all you have to do is switch it off. Fission, in contrast, can melt down. More on fusion vs. fission »

Nevertheless, it is sensible to be suspicious of new technology. Any discussion of fusion should investigate all the possible things that can go wrong with the technology itself so that we can prevent anything bad from happening. If you have concerns on this matter, add your thoughts in the forums or make comments to these articles:

• “If it’s nuclear, won’t it be radioactive.”
• “Can Focus Fusion be used to make a fusion bomb”
• “Focus Fusion vs. nuclear reactors”

We believe, of course, that fusion can be designed to be ridiculously safe, and that as envisioned in our Plasma Focus device, it’s much safer than any power source/ powerplant currently in existence.

Lack of Vision

Finally, it’s possible that the main block against fusion is simply a lack of vision. We’ve lived under a “limited resources paradigm” for so long that it’s hard to imagine unlimited, safe, clean, cheap energy. Pessimism is a hard habit to break. Even with the advances we’ve made so far in technology, people still think that progress and prosperity for everyone is at best a fantasy. Fusion needs to be mysterious, complex, unattainable stuff that can only take place in fancy, all bells and whistles, high tech, multi-billion dollar facilities in the mist enshrouded future on a distant planet populated by Mome Wraths.

The antidote for this lack of vision is to start the envisioning process. We have made a few stabs at it in our “Fusion World” page. Please add your comments or start some topics in the forums to build up this section.