Fusion – ain’t gonna happen February 28, 2015
Posted by Maury Markowitz in fusion.Tags: fusion power
4 comments
ITER is a big hole in the ground. Literally and metaphorically.
A while back I wrote a lengthy article on the problems facing the fusion energy concept, and how even if the technical issues were solved, it wouldn’t make a difference…
No matter how hard you try, a fusion reactor will be more expensive than power sources we have now, so no one is going to build one.
The argument was made by, and backed up by, lots and lots of independent studies. I was merely the messenger. The messenger was attacked, of course. This tech has convinced so many people of it’s total awesomeness that logic simply no longer works. Well, maybe this will…
ITER update: At least they got the name right February 28, 2014
Posted by Maury Markowitz in fusion.Tags: fusion power, ITER
add a comment
If it really is true the any news is good news, the management at ITER should be ecstatic right now.
I suspect they’re not.
A recently released 3rd party report on the project was damning, pointing out enormous problems with the project’s management, while the budget and timelines continue to recede into the infinite.
Completion has already slipped to 2020, four years late in a ten year timeline. The budget is currently US$22 billion, three times the estimates, and the report suggests this is going to rise dramatically.
Fusion, the power of wishful thinking April 21, 2013
Posted by Maury Markowitz in fusion, nuclear.Tags: fusion power
1 comment so far
I got Sun in a Bottle by Seife the other day, a book on the history of nuclear fusion. Here’s my mini-review… and, of course, a comment.
Why fusion will never happen October 26, 2012
Posted by Maury Markowitz in fusion, nuclear.Tags: fusion power
30 comments
Fusion power!
I like fusion, really. I’ve talked to some of luminaries that work in the field, they’re great people. I love the technology and the physics behind it.
But fusion as a power source is never going to happen. Not because it can’t, because it won’t. Because no matter how hard you try, it’s always going to cost more than the solutions we already have.
Onward brave reader!
NOTE: this article used to contain a lengthy section outlining the tremendous technical issues still to overcome. It had nothing to do with the real argument, so I’ve removed it.
(more…)
Freakin’ “laz-ers” November 17, 2009
Posted by Maury Markowitz in fusion, nuclear.Tags: bolognium, fusion power, nuclear power
4 comments
So Edward Moses, the latest manager of the disaster that is the National Ignition Facility, continues to put a brave face on the latest efforts to suck up US taxpayer money. In spite of enormous budget overruns, continued delays, and the simple fact that there is no possible way it will ever be a new power producer, Moses recently claimed in a Newsweek article, with a straight face one presumes, that NIF will be a “endless supply of safe, clean energy.”
Energy Matters 