Cheap Clean Energy

[Heywood]

Two talks about fusion which may lead to cheap clean energy.

Ted Talk on Magnetic Target Fusion

Magnetic Target Fusion reminds me a little bit of sonofusion which bombed miserably. Hopefully this will pan out. Below is a talk about focus fusion.

[MindForgedManacle]

We'll get fusion eventually. Current estimates that I've seen put it as commercially viable by 2050 or so. Now we just need some life-extension tech. to be deployed in the near future and I'll be good.

[JuliaL]

We'll get fusion eventually. Current estimates that I've seen put it as commercially viable by 2050 or so. Now we just need some life-extension tech. to be deployed in the near future and I'll be good.

Gee, looks like the target delivery has slipped a decade and a half. As long as I can remember, commercial fusion has been 20 years away.
And I can remember back to the '70s.
The '60s not so much.

[vorlon13]

No doubt about it, cheap clean fusion energy would be quite a prize, but I'm just not seeing the big breakthrough(s) in the pipeline to even get within a few orders of magnitude of 'just barely possible' and that at staggering cost.

I want it, I think applications in space travel would be stunning too, but the nuts and bolts of making it work at all, let alone 'cheaply' are beyond daunting.

[John V]

We'll get fusion eventually. Current estimates that I've seen put it as commercially viable by 2050 or so. Now we just need some life-extension tech. to be deployed in the near future and I'll be good.

Meh, 40 years ago they said it was 30-40 years away.

[Duke Guilmon]

We'll get fusion eventually. Current estimates that I've seen put it as commercially viable by 2050 or so. Now we just need some life-extension tech. to be deployed in the near future and I'll be good.

Meh, 40 years ago they said it was 30-40 years away.

I don't know man I mean we finally got a hoverborad(or at least the prototype). We will see.

[Rampant.A.I.]

Hover board video was a hoax.

[Duke Guilmon]

Hover board video was a hoax.

Really damn. Good thing I said prototype. If it is real it is still in testing.

[Heywood]

Gee, looks like the target delivery has slipped a decade and a half. As long as I can remember, commercial fusion has been 20 years away.
And I can remember back to the '70s.
The '60s not so much.

What is different today is the perceived need for fusion. In 1970 and 80's I don't think people thought there was an immediate need for fusion but rather it was just something we would eventually accomplish.

2014 is different, today I think a lot more people believe this technology is a necessity that needs to come sooner rather than later. The urgency for fusion technology is building up faster now than it ever has. I think we really are now less than 20 years away.

[pocaracas]

ITER is supposed to start rolling out some results by 2025.
After that, each nation which takes part on this project will have the expertise to build a commercial nuclear fusion reactor.
Last I heard, China was extremely interested in getting the ball going as soon as possible and they have plans to build their own version of ITER to skip ahead faster...
The EU is planning on building a demonstration reactor after ITER, so that electrical companies will only have to copy that DEMO machine...leaving the earliest commercial available fusion electricity well into the 2030's... in the EU.
The U.S....well, it depends on the petroleum lobby... they did back out of the ITER project at one time... no doubt after some pressuring...
Canada's in for the long haul.
India and Japan are also a pat of the group.
The world's most power hungry places are putting their heads together to make this happen...
It took years to develop the machine's schematics...it's still being tweak as the site is under construction. It took years for the politicians to agree on a location for ITER. It's taking years to build the damn thing. It'll take a few years until the desired results are achieved, as the scientists will not want to break the machine on its first run...they'll take it slow.

So...Some 20 years from now we may start seeing fusion power delivering electricity... our maybe it'll take longer.. well see.