Why aren't we investing billions in fusion power ?

Pinko

If governments are convinced of the threat of global warming, instead of building  wind turbines that generate the power of a 9v battery why aren't they investing in Fusion power.

AndyCob

Actually quite a bit of money has been spent on fusion research over the last 2 or 3 decades, must surely be in the 100s of millions if not billions by now, didn't america put over a billion into it a year or threee ago. I actually did a project on the UKs JET Fusion reactor project something like 15-20 years ago. The problem is no one has really come up with a way to make it work yet, the JET reactor did actually manage to produce several fusion events but nothing approaching a self sustaining reaction suitable for power genration. There are tons of problems, from containment, the initial energy requirements to generate the plasma, instabilities, radiation etc. The thing I remember but never understood is that the plasma 'likes' (not the right word) to exist in a toroid shape and not a ball or sphere like the sun but just about at the point where fusion should happen it apparently 'wants' (again wrong word must be something to do with the plasma physics) to be in a figure eight.

If I remember things they once caused the plasma to try and swtich in the JET reactor and the entire 30 TON reactor lept several inches into the air

Persoanlly I hope someone gets it working or we better start building nuclear reactors like mad (and damn the nuclear waste) because in 30 to 50 years the world is going to be in deep dodo and nuclear reactors take years or even decades to build and get online so if you wait until you really need them it's to late. Renewable energy like wind and solar are great supplements but they are non starters as far as replacing mainline generation because they cannot be relied on for a continuous controllable supply and there is no way to store electricity on that sort of scale yet (forget batteries, they're to inefficient and don't store enough), one reason for the interest in hydrogen as potentially you could dump your spare green energy into producing it and store it for when it's dark, no wind etc then burn, convert it in fuel cells etc

DPinBucks

Absolutely. 100% agree.

The key word in the original question is 'invest'. You can't invest in something so nebulous as the current state of fusion research. You need a reliable theoretical base, which to some extent we have, and a workable technology, we we don't. Getting the right technology, which essentially boils down to containment of a sustained reaction, to be robust enough to withstand the extraction of the energy and scaleable to industrial levels, is still beyond us.

Billions are being spent on research, but you reach a point where spending more money will probably not help.

In the meantime, as you say, we need to start building lots and lots of fission power stations now.

NikB

Lots going on at the National Ignition Facility - https://lasers.llnl.gov/

BISHI

The trouble is there is still too much money and power in oil and all those with vested interests will do all they can to keep oil king. I have heard stories of Saudi secret services offering bribes to quiet researchers or sabotaging potentialy successful energy projects. Of course it may be myth but whilst there is still money in oil I cannot see governments throwing serious money at fusion infrastructure until the oil is almost gone or the possible future war to control it is lost.

GasDad

That assumption works (sort of) for oil rich governments - but there are plenty of countries (eg Japan, Germany) that are not oil rich.

BISHI

And Germany and Japan are great investors in alternative power sources on their home soil, but don't forget that a major part of their exports and subsequent economuc success depends on the car............ which depends on the internal combustion engine........which depends on oil !
Ok they are investing some time and money in hybrid engines but it is peanuts in comparison.

Chadford

May be of interest...

BBC News - UK joins laser nuclear fusion project

...The audio clip is quite interesting.

TheDandy

Because global warming isnt as serious as the media make out

Nozzer17

Although I kinda agree with this the main concern is we are burning through fossil fuels at an alarming rate (coal/oil/gas power stations etc) and eventually will run out and be left with nuclear, which the waste is an issue.

Just need our own Superman who can throw the waste at the sun lol