Rofel_Wodring t1_j7zlah5 wrote on February 10, 2023 at 3:18 PM

Reply to comment by Semifreak in Renewables are on track to satiate the world's appetite for electricity by ForHidingSquirrels

Expect commercially viable fusion at the end of this decade. Maybe not an actual plant that provides your home power (though there will definitely be viable near-term plans to do so) but unless I've been the wrongest I've been about anything in my life this decade will be the last decade of that stupid nuclear fusion joke.

Semifreak t1_j818tqo wrote on February 10, 2023 at 9:46 PM

Things are certainly looking up. MIT will run a test in 2025 with their 'mini' sized reactor (tiny magnets). ITER in 2035. And there is a third company using plasma instead of magnets I read about but I forget when their test run will be.

Of course it will be decades till actual homes run on actual fusion plants power after a successful 'proof of concept' from at least ITER or maybe MIT, but at least we can know for sure if fusion is doable or not in just a decade or so.

Also, 'decades' is not a long time, really. Nuclear power plants were first suggested in 1941 and the first commercial one started in 1957. I think even skeptics don't have a problem imagining fusion power would be real by 2100. The question is how soon can we get it working- if we can, just to keep an open mind. After all, everything is vaporware till it happens.

Let's just hope governments can streamline the paperwork and fix the crazy, crazy, 'over head' and 'manager' costs to speed things up.There is a SINGLE public toilet in San Fran that is costing 1.7 million USD to build. California's high speed rail costs as much as the International Space Station (which costs its weight in gold due to the cost of delivering something to space).

Today, building a nuclear power plant to take up to 7 years or more and that is because all of the red tapes and permits...

But maybe the public will get excited for fusion once it is proven commercially feasible and pressure lawmakers to get it rolled out faster. After all, it seems the talk about favoring clean energy is growing by the year.