For decades, government scientists have toiled away trying to make nuclear fusion work. Will commercial companies sprint to the finish?

  • @assassin_aragorn
    link
    21 year ago

    What’s the bottleneck there? Is there a reason why we couldn’t scale up production? Genuinely asking.

    • HubertManne
      link
      fedilink
      31 year ago

      It costs energy to make. Im not sure really if its net positive overall but its enough that the moon is talked about for its tritium deposits which makes me think its not very easy to make. wikipedia has some stuff on it but its hard to get overall. Anyway though its not some magical unlimited energy. it has inputs and outputs like anything else.

      • @assassin_aragorn
        link
        11 year ago

        Of course, yeah. I think we would see nearly unlimited, free energy, but there’s obviously still bounds and constraints. I think it could very well be enough energy to be considered limitless for everyday activities and industry, and only run into issues with things like space travel. But we’ll have to see. It’s such a new field in terms of actually having things to show for, there’s a lot we don’t know.

        • HubertManne
          link
          fedilink
          11 year ago

          Im very skeptical it would get anywhere near that. Besides tritium I know the reactors need certain shielding that gets worn out and becomes radioactive. tritium can be made from fission plants and fusion makes radioactive elements but given everything else we have seen with technology I am doubting these are going to play off each other in a net positive way that can just be kept on going. Its in some ways a lot like wind/solar/water. The sunlight/wind/maybetidal is unlimited but the materials for the collectors are not and have to be replaced. We are really good at using up energy sources and there are like 8 billion of us.