
Scientists plan to ignite tiny man-made star - nickb
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3981697/Scientists-plan-to-ignite-tiny-man-made-star.html
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ngvrnd
I counsel hopeful skepticism. Engineers (and these guys are doing engineering,
better if they realize it, worse if they don't) always underestimate the time
to completion on projects which are breaking new ground. I have no real doubt
that one day we will achieve controlled nuclear fusion as a power-generating
mechanism. I have nothing but doubt about when it will be achieved.

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jmtame
"If successful, the experiment will mark the first step towards building a
practical nuclear fusion power station and a source of almost limitless
energy."

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incomethax
There have been plenty of 'first steps toward building practical nuclear
fusion power stations.'

Excuse my skepticism, but I doubt anyone will come out with a breakthrough
anytime soon. Even if they do, it will still take years to figure out how to
commercialize the technology safely.

No fusion reactor is going to be the answer to our energy needs in the
foreseeable future.

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Retric
We are slowly building a fusion reactor that will produce a steady state net
energy gain Q > 5 for several hundred seconds (ITER.org). The idea that fusion
is some mythical problem that we have no idea how to solve is false. The
problem is it's extremely expensive to build large scale fusion reactors and
nobody has fronted the money to build anything significant in the last 25
years so we don't know how well the "state of the art" has advanced.

For about 35 billion we could have a working 1GW fusion power plant within 15
years. With extremely good odds for spending less money and building something
sooner. After that it's just a question of reducing costs.

PS: All of the numbers giving are vary conservative estimates.

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d0mine
It reminds me of a story (how to apply for a job to teach a mule to speak):

 _Before ten years pass, I die, the mule dies or the sultan dies..._ </quote>
<http://nasredin.blogspot.com/2007/11/ibn-khaldouns-mule.html>

~~~
nebula
Come on! don't be so full of cynicism.

