Reply To: Fusion Oil

[jamesr]

Although it may be a little frustrating seeing other projects get this much investment; I take it as a positive sign that there is still money around whether from governments or private industry for this kind of research.

What you have to remember is the physics of fission and neutron transport is pretty well understood, unlike some aspects of plasma physics. Accelerator driven fission, in particular is something that an organisation like SCK-CEN has a lot of experience in, since that is how a lot of isotopes for medical uses are made. So they seem well placed to pursue this.

Once the key physics behind FF, like the suppression of bremsstrahlung, has hopefully been demonstrated to be a big enough effect to make breakeven possible. Then, after a year or so for another lab to verify the results, the proposals for serious funding can go full steam ahead.