How about a crash govt program to develop fusion energy ala the Manhattan project? Elim dep on fossil fuels?

Question

Fusion energy is an almost endlessly renewable energy source that is non polluting and produces no radioactive byproducts like nuclear. The oceans of the world have a virtually endles supply of fuel (duterium). Progress has been slow but with unlimited govt backing maybe a breakthrough could be made.

Answer 1

Funding is not the major problem for developing fusion reactors. There is simply a lack of knowledge, especially when it comes to understanding the mechanisms of the plasmas in such a way that they can be controlled in a fusion reactor. Theres also plenty of rather contradictory engineering problems one must get by such as containing a reactor as hot as the core of a sun within a room inside a metal caseing that would be vaporized upon contact with the core. We have a good idea on how to do that but then you gotta look at how exactly do you turn this amazingly hot plasma into steam? Well you have to think up solutions for that. We have some solutions but they sure aren't great. Other fuel sources are wonderfully simple in their creation of energy.... compared to fusion.

I suppose you could accelerate it by maybe forcing people into physics, ha! Unfortunately, our culture glorifies people who can get their faces on TV and complain about problems instead of the people in the labs working to fix the problem. It's a personal pet peeve of mine to see so many shy away from actually contributing to the solution in meaningful ways.

Answer 2

It's the picture of a broken government. edit: Wow, great answer from JS. DrM actually has it correct. The entire growth economy of the world is based on resource extraction (be it mining or agriculture or fishing) and the value added to those resources. Or, you could say, the equity markets of the world are a giant Ponzi scheme based on the future value of resources. What happens when the resources run out? What happens when the resource base is poisoned and will no longer produce or even sustain? What cornucopian capitalism fails to recognize is that resources are finite, both in what can be extracted and the volume of waste that can be assimilated. The answer is a sustainable economy. I can't say what that should look like, but making socialism the bogeyman doesn't solve any problem, it only serves to perpetuate the current system of graft and inequity. If our social systems were transparent and fair, capitol holders would work to protect the commons instead of exploiting them for every last dollar. JS has pointed out what is happening now and why. Vote third party, vote Green, vote anything but status quo. In a rational world there would be no need for subsidies. People would choose perpetually clean free energy from the sun (free as in free from recurring cost) instead of finite and toxic energy from carbon, even if the up front costs were greater - because they would realize that the long term costs were far worse. But we don't live in a fair transparent economy and in ignorance the we fall for the false choice.

Answer 3

according to one stephen cowley at UCLA plasma physics dept.

small Kev range fusion reactors are expected to be on line by 2011 and 2019, more or less.

however, i think they have lowered their expectations a bit.

they are using proton/boron fusion and tritium/dueteron fusion.

as for the means of confinement/ignition, one type is laser (inertial) implosion and the other is magnetic.

i personally am proposing that a toroidal type magnetic confinement reactor be built adjacent to a synchrotron (a particle accelerator) in doing this the reactor when active could provide particles to the synchrotron for study, and the synchrotron could send high energy particles to the reactor to ignite it. this is symbiosis.

since it would be neccesary to start and stop a reactor as you develope it, having the synchrotron to ignite the reactor would be very helpful.

i spoke to Dr. bill wattenberg, KGO radio san francisco on air about it, he said he'd have to study the idea to comment on it.

he was a nuclear weapons designer for the gov.

but lets get real, your government is controlled by oil rich assholes. pardon my langauge. they dont want to build a replacement for oil. its all political.

for the trillion dollars wasted in iraq, i could have built several fusion reactors and had them working already.

Answer 4

Good idea. You should become the energy czar or president or something powerful so you can implement your ideas. Get more funding for fusion research. Do you prefer inertial or magnetic confinement (i think magnetic has won out?) I learned about it 25 years ago....you should make a career out of making this come true.

Answer 5

That would be wonderful.

Though, currently supplies of reactor grade materials would last us over a thousand years even with current fission technology, if I recall correctly what U.C. Berkeley physicist Muller has to say about during the 2006-Spring semester.