Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

m0estash t1_j0a12q3 wrote

Reply to comment by ackermann in Fusion energy breakthrough and national security implications explained by TheScienceAdvocate

We need it badly. The problems with storing spent fuel seem much easier to engineer out than the problems with scaling fusion.

I desperately want fusion of course. A world with free energy would free humanity in so many ways but we aren’t there yet and we have a huge energy crisis to solve.

Edit: spelling

14

Mud_Landry t1_j0al74g wrote

There will never be “free energy” like in books…. We figured out how to fix diabetes and now charge people over $300 a month to live…. If you think this will be phased to us any other way you are stupid.

24

m0estash t1_j0ama4l wrote

I should have said “free” You are spot on though someone will want to control it for their own gain. Whatever that looks like.

7

kittenfordinner t1_j0aq12r wrote

I mean, it will still have a cost to build and cost to run and maintain. Just like a coal plant

5

Ok-disaster2022 t1_j0b1ohu wrote

Fusion will damage and activate the shielding. To do it on mass scale the costs of storing the activated shielding and replacing the shielding could be high. Even fast nuclear reactors have a similar issue where burner/breeder reactors have a much shorter expected operational life compared to the light water reactors that are expected to operate for 80 years.

4

Ark-kun t1_j0b1fbp wrote

How much did you pay to post this? Public messages in popular press must be expensive...

3

Skarr87 t1_j0bqz6c wrote

The thing is we don’t have to store the spent fuel, it can be put through breeder reactors over and over again to re-enrich it and use it again until the spent fuel is effectively inert. It’s just we so terrified of someone making a dirty bomb.

1

GumbyRocks89 t1_j0b99kh wrote

We should have reusable heavy launch vehicles figured out over the next decade. Let's spend $$$ to launch spent fuel in pods with a trajectory leading directly into the sun. It would be silly expensive but problem solved.

−3