Reply To: Set up a holding company

[Tulse]

Radioactivity is a major problem — true, it is less of one than for a fission reactor, but it is still an issue.

In addition, when the energy comes from neutrons, one has to extract usable energy from them. Typically, in order to do this, one has them heat some medium that then heats water that then generates steam that then turns a turbine that then turns a generator — the same relatively inefficient approach to generating electricity that all power plants have used for 130 years. The real elegance of aneutronic fusion is that one can extract electricity directly from the charged particles produced, without needing the standard steam generation cycle. As a result, you get a plant that is (at least in principle) much more efficient, more compact, and requires less capital to build and with lower operating costs. (By contrast, DD or DT fusion plants would for the most part look and cost very similar to a coal- or gas-fired plant, as they need generally the same equipment for doing the actual generation of power.)