I noticed this in the news and found it quite interesting, especially the part where they have the goal of igniting it by 2012, woo hoo will this be the "mayan event" will fry us all
Could Fusion be the answer to the energy problems in the world, and what could be the side effects?
A bit of info taken from the link at bottom.
At the National Ignition Facility in Livermore California, scientists are aiming to build the world's first sustainable fusion reactor by 'creating a miniature star on Earth'. Following a series of key experiments over the last few weeks, the £2.2 billion project has inched a little closer to its goal of igniting a workable fusion reaction by 2012.
Looks like a mini version of the death star (please log in to view the image)
The true barriers to rational use of clean, sustenaible, renewable energy are political and economic not technological. Cold fusion isn't solve shit. Placing faith in technological progress as the answer to our environmental and social problems is dellusional.
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
The same way you make money with "expensive" energy, by charging people money to use the electricity you produce. The way to take the lead is by charging people less than than other companies, since your energy is cheap you still make the same amount of profit.
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Graffiti outside Latin class.
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
A juvenal prank.
Then you don't understand anything about physics or economics. Power plants don't magically maintain themselves and even fusion requires raw materials to keep running.
Sure but "idealized fusion power" is a myth invented by idiots and shysters that has been bought into by people who are either naieve or so blindly anti-capitalist that they'll believe anything.
And that's a terrible metaphor. Fusion doesn't appear naturally on Earth, if it did there wouldn't people people racing to develop it.
__________________
Graffiti outside Latin class.
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
A juvenal prank.
I think the idea is that cold fusion would be so cheap that the government or some random non-profit group could easily maintain the plants and charge people close to nothing thus ending the private sector's humongous profits.
the cheaper the costs of production and upkeep, the higher the profits one can charge on it though.
I accept if it was a state run thing, they could charge the exact same as costs, but if we are talking about a company competeing against conventional power suppliers, they would only have to reduce costs proportionate to oil or whatever else is on the market.
sure, over time competition is going to drive this down, but even as we see with oil, the price consumers pay is not based only on the costs of production (gasoline, at least as of a couple of years ago, was something like 15cents inflated per gallon [or whatever] compared to just the costs associated with getting it to the pump)
KMC Community Forums
Nov 19th, 2010 07:56 PM
