Reply To: The Texas 22nd Primary Elections on March 4th

[Rezwan]

The cancer comparison is a good one. They still say that a good diet and lifestyle choices are the biggest factor in cancer – just as energy conservation would be a bigger factor in energy problems.

The cliff edge event would be much more dramatic for fusion, and more possible than the cancer cure, I think.

But there are quite a few applications from the research before that. You don’t need net energy for ionic propulsion, and there are all those isotopes. The New Scientist article points out:

Wallace thinks the new machines might take off first not for power generation, but as neutron sources that could be used to “transmute” the highly radioactive waste from today’s fission reactors into low-level isotopes and nuclear fuel. He estimates that 50 Fusion Engines of the size Helion is planning to build could within 20 years eliminate all the waste the US now has stockpiled.

That would make fission more attractive.

I think there are a lot of interesting observations that will be made in the pursuit of fusion that will be tangibly beneficial.