Reply To: would nuclear energy really be accessible to all?

[Rezwan]

Eric’s first draft is certainly KISS. What do you want: oil spills and wars or fusion without nuclear waste?

Of course, the immediate objection of people to the video would be “of course we’d love clean fusion energy, but it’s impossible.”

As msmith points out, it’s still proof of concept.

But I don’t think we’re selling a dream or a dreamer. We’re selling a strategy: Engage in and fund proof of concept research. Pursue fusion. It’s worth it.

Take a look at this video: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-16-2010/an-energy-independent-future SEE all the presidents who promised to ween us off oil. LAUGH at all their weak solutions with ethanol etc. MARVEL that there is no mention of fusion.

A math approach: Show how we take shortcuts to save money (e.g., testimony about engineers & officials at BP rushing to complete the well, e.g., the email from the BP engineer who wrote “who cares, it’s done, end of story, it will probably be fine.” 4 days later, the well explodes, 11 workers are dead, and it’s the worst environmental disaster in US history.)

So, the score is:
Savings from shortcut: 10 million;
cost to company $17- $60 billion and rising…
cost to environment – incalculable…
Lives lost…(human, creature, ecosystem)

vs.

Cost of aneutronic research: $1 million for DPF…to several hundred billion if the DPF doesn’t work and we have to go through the other fusion approaches out there (it’s OK to show uncertainty here, the hope of the immediate project is more valid if it’s the low end of the range. Gets people to realize that there may actually be a quick solution, at the same time not feel they are being oversold – so it helps build stamina for a longer quest. Hope and stamina, with a possibility of quick gratification.)

Benefit: Solving this unacceptable oil-based energy problem once and for ALL. Aren’t we all sick enough of it yet?

Don’t wait for 8 more presidential administrations. Humanity needs to rally behind the quest for fusion now.