7 Aug 2023 8:31 pm
One of my pet peeves is that every small advance in the pursuit of sustained nuclear fusion is hailed in the media as a "breakthrough". Of course all the outlets want more viewers. But it's up to the reader to put each advance in perspective.
As I understand it, the Lawrence Livermore ignition success brings us incrementally closer to commercially useful, clean energy from fusion. But realization of that goal is still many years in the future.
When the time actually draws close for nuclear fusion to replace most other sources of electricity, the Fossil Fuel Industries will probably oppose it. If they do, they will also grease the palms of politicians to write legislation inhibiting its use. And they will buy the efforts of mostly Republican politicians to create new, false narratives that sustained fusion is somehow undesirable. In that case, we could expect MAGA to be against it.
But if fossil fuel execs, atypically, invest in the future, they will get in on the ground floor and become part of the fusion industry themselves. There's probably plenty of time to observe what happens.
As I understand it, the Lawrence Livermore ignition success brings us incrementally closer to commercially useful, clean energy from fusion. But realization of that goal is still many years in the future.
When the time actually draws close for nuclear fusion to replace most other sources of electricity, the Fossil Fuel Industries will probably oppose it. If they do, they will also grease the palms of politicians to write legislation inhibiting its use. And they will buy the efforts of mostly Republican politicians to create new, false narratives that sustained fusion is somehow undesirable. In that case, we could expect MAGA to be against it.
But if fossil fuel execs, atypically, invest in the future, they will get in on the ground floor and become part of the fusion industry themselves. There's probably plenty of time to observe what happens.