In the previous post I argued that…
Research into Nuclear Fusion is a waste of money
I felt pleased with this article – writing it helped to clarify my thoughts.
In particular (although I didn’t express this as clearly as I wanted to) I realised that it wasn’t just the specific overwhelming technological problems that made Fusion Research a bad idea. Any power generation scheme that is that complex and expensive will inevitably never be built. I illustrated this with a quote I heard some time ago.
I don’t want to live in a world with
nuclear fusion reactors, because
I don’t want to live in a world
where electricity is that expensive.
Unknown author
It was only after I had written the article that a colleague at work pointed out another article that said the same thing.
Distressingly, this article is much more clearly written.
It was published by Maury Markowitz in 2012, and amusingly illustrates Fusion Power with a picture of a unicorn jumping over a rainbow.
Fusion Power (from Matter 2 Energy)
Since then the fundamental truth has only become truer.
I feel a certain sadness in acknowledging that this long-hoped-for technology will never materialise.
But once understood, there is only one rational path of action: we should stop throwing good money after bad and stop funding fusion research right now.
S
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