And on the prospects for nuclear fusion - the IET (former IEE) magazine had an article on this recently
The thrust of the article is that achieving break-even is the easy part - once that happens, the real engineering challenges will have to be solved...
The thrust of the article is that achieving break-even is the easy part - once that happens, the real engineering challenges will have to be solved...
“We could actually build a reactor now, but it would not be economic because whilst the neutrons give up their energy and produce the heat we need to generate steam, they also damage the materials we have available now. The physics of fusion is now well mostly understood and resolved, but what is not resolved is the engineering consequences of generating these neutrons.
“You could build a reactor now with today's materials, but it wouldn't be economic because you would have to build a new reactor or remove and replace to core of the machine within two years. This includes everything inside the plasma chamber; ten billions dollar’s worth of plant.
