Reply To: Fusion X-prize petition started!

[Brian H]

Adam Whistle wrote: However, there is a good likelihood of focus fusion, like many other fusion schemes in the past, not working in practise. At all. Or ending up with so many problems that the cheapness of it will go away, not making it worth it or the potential political embarrassment. And Japanese really hate embarrassment.

This is the nature of plasma physics: something looks neat on paper, but in practise, something new will come out that throws the whole thing out of the window.

Sure, focus fusion is cheap and sounds good, but there is finite amount of money in Japan, or in any country for that matter, to develop nuclear energy. Fission works, it produces energy, fusion doesn’t.

So, yeah, spelling error aside, fission is tried and true. We know its risks, we know how to make it economically, we know how to streamline it, we know what it can do and what it cannot, we know its bugs. Making IV gen fission reactors is a far more safe financial investment.
Fusion? Surprises at every corner, as shown by the last 50 years. Lots of frauds, lots of false roads, lots of surprises, lots of research and still little to show in practise.

Given the minute relative costs involved, and the fact that FF has demonstrated results far closer to energy breakeven, at far higher efficiencies, than ANY other fusion research, it’s certainly worth the throw. Watch the Oct 7/2007 video of the presentation Eric gave to the Google Conference, with particular attention to the research result comparison graphs.

You seem not to realize how many BILLIONS are being put into both Tokamak fusion and fission construction. The entire FF program could probably be paid out of their budgets for pocket protectors.

😉 And it’s “practice”, speaking of spelling.