If "we" are serious about relatively clean affordable energy why aren't we spending giga$ on serious contained fusion power plants?
It's a gigantic scientific and engineering challenge - so what.
Is humanity being given short shrift by vested interests in fossil fuels and fission reactors.
In Germany they had an experimental fusion reactor in Kalkar. It was operational (for research) for at least 10 years. Then they closed it and disamtled it for Billions. But I do not recall why.
The German plant was converted into a theme park: http://inhabitat.com/dismantled-german-nuclear-plant-transformed-into-incredible-wunderland-kalkar-amusement-park/nuclear-powerplant-transformed-wunderland6/
Very sad Wolfgang and I would suggest the dirty $ got in the way.
I think Europe could be the leading light here. I know they still plug away.
Facilities like CERN show the commitment to nuclear science but more is needed.
The obvious to me: The sun is a fusion reactor and "clean". Earth based fusion reactors could also be "clean" but more controllable to meet needs.
Vested interests - thats the answer right there. Too many people stand to lose too much money....
Nuclear fusion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are two places working on it.
Right now it appears it takes more enrgy in production than is produced.
That's true Hopalong but that just means the scientific and engineering challenges need much more work. Fission is relatively easy - Contained fussion is not. This should be the challenge of the century - people can do it and should demand it.
As ever, money, vested interests and politics dictate which way our future energy needs are met.
Nuclear fusion has been achieved here on Earth, but only for an extremely short time and at huge cost.
As for fossil fuels, the sooner we're less dependent on oil, the sooner the mess that is the Middle East will be resolved.
Development of the science and technology to produce a viable fusion reactor would be the pinnacle of human achievement.
I would love to start my career again and be part of this. The basic science, maths and hard core engineering is becoming less popular. What hope do we have. (Never mind multicore CPUs as we starve to death).
Quote
