On Sun, Dec 09, 2007 at 07:08:09AM -0500, Chris Smolinski wrote:
> >Fusion is the only real answer to all this but nobody wants to spend any
> >money on it. It should be the prime goal of the scientific and
> >engineering establishments around the world. The world needs a goal of
> >producing commercial scale fusion power before 2015. It really is the
> >most important thing in the world. Think, with access to fusion power
> >china would not be opening 2 new coal fired power stations every week.
> >You want to stop emissions start with that.
> 
> Actually we spend huge amounts (tens of billions of dollars)  every
> year on fusion research. And we've not gotten anywhere. My own
> opinion is that fusion energy is either a long way off, or more
> likely impossible. Why? Because it doesn't scale down well. Stars can
> do fusion on a large scale, where gravity does a lot of work for
> free. We can't do fusion on such a scale here on Earth. The losses
> from scaling down move you too far from the break-even point.
> 
> If we took the money spent on fusion research, and had used it to
> build nuclear fission plants (which do work), we wouldn't have an
> energy crisis in the US.

Or anywhere else in the world for that matter. Thanks for your thoughts.

BAJ
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist