Hey fizziks folks! Fusion power, yay or nay?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

The first reactor was made in the US in 1942. True, the US was in the war at that point but the first strides were being made not in a bomb context.

anyhow... 5 year project, everyone fully focused due to the war, government invested 0.4% GDP peak per year into it... what would that be 50-60bn for a "peak" year of a 5 year project today, 130k people employed by state on potential vapourware... if a weapon meaning "life or death" was not behind it - not a chance. A decade later when they could explore the investement already made further, they moved into civil area... For fusion energy project/s there is nowhere near as much impetus today, nor in the forseeable future.

[Al B. Sure!]

OneFoot:

And who knows what Germany could have done. Heisenberg doubted the possibility of an atomic bomb and the German program did involve departments concerned with power generation.

The point in 1942, when the army relinquished its control of the German nuclear energy project, was the zenith of the project relative to the number of personnel devoting time to the effort. There were only about seventy scientists working on the project, with about forty devoting more than half their time to nuclear fission research. After this, the number of scientists working on applied nuclear fission diminished dramatically. Many of the scientists not working with the main institutes stopped working on nuclear fission and devoted their efforts to more pressing war related work.

The war effort actually caused the German program to be curtailed because a bomb didn't seem likely to one of the program heads (Heisenberg who sold the German military on the idea that it wouldn't be feasible). A peaceful Germany (although that would not have been likely anyway) might have been more successful. Think of all the strides in Physics that occurred in the 1920's and 1930's in Germany, for example.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Ok... still... IMO - a great focused effort which was Manhattan project would not be happening... and Germans if they did not have Hitler would hardly be going for nuclear power as an energy source strongly either... it would all be a loooooooottttttt slower... who knows if it would be economically viable today, if there was no WWII... but hey just an opinon... and for sure even if we have WWIII (unless it is directly linked to energy needs, so in some warped way it causes a huge investement into cheap energy by powerful states such as USA, China or EU) such a single huge push towards Fusion power will not happen, as what happened inadvertently with regular nuclear at the time.

[Al B. Sure!]

Well I agree with you that economic incentives is a major reason why fission power plants will not be operational in the next ten years (besides the technological hurdles), I just disagree that nuclear power was contingent on WW2 occurring.

[Krill]

****, out-lawyered

[Fve Crathva]

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/the-daintiest-dynamos

SP

[Hauldren Collider]

I read that the science was there but the engineering problem was too difficult.

Basically we can't built strong enough ****. At least, with respect to cold fusion. I don't know anything about it however.

[KrazyHorse]

I have no ****ing clue what you're on about

[Al B. Sure!]

I have no ****ing clue what you're on about

It's HC. You'd think a guy with a name in reference to the Hadron Collider would be a little bit more interested in physics, don't you think?

What I find sad is that he seems to look up to you, KH, for some bizarre reason and he'll probably get a little tingle of sadness when he sees your comment

But I still don't get the reference to Hauldren. Who or what is Hauldren?

[Al B. Sure!]

My guess (granted, I know very little about this) is he's talking about the heat required to start the reaction.

[Kuciwalker]

It's utterly bizarre seeing AS try to talk down to anyone.

[Al B. Sure!]

Kuci: Do you have any intention of taking the GMAT any time soon?

[Kuciwalker]

Why would I take the GMAT? Particularly since I have exams to study for that will actually be both challenging and valuable?

[Al B. Sure!]

I dont know... maybe you intend to go to grad school... don't act like it's a retarded question.

[KrazyHorse]

It's utterly bizarre seeing AS try to talk down to anyone.

Quite