From: dezakin@usa.net (Dez Akin)
Newsgroups: sci.physics.fusion,sci.energy,sci.physics.plasma
Subject: Re: Advance Claimed in Fusion Research
Organization: http://groups.google.com/
References: <aiuqmq$13h0$1@saturn.cs.uml.edu> <aj6ipf$5dfp$1@saturn.cs.uml.edu>


Mike Rosing <rosing@neurophys.wisc.edu> wrote in message news:<aj6ipf$5dfp$1@saturn.cs.uml.edu>...
> sanman wrote:
> > Here's an article from NewScientist:
> >
> > http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992637
> >
> > They claim an advance in being able to sustain a plasma discharge for
> > upto 210 secs. So is this another stunt by researchers looking to show
> > progress in their long-unrealized goal of achieving practical fusion
> > power? Or is it a significant and worthwhile advance?
>
> Thanks for the pointer. It's a good "stunt", especially if they can
> repeat it a bunch of times. If ITER is going to run with 30 minute
> "pulses" as they called 'em, then they are still a factor of 10 away
> in run time. Getting that far in 3 years won't be easy, but it's "only"
> a factor of 10. That's something the engineering team can work with,
> so it's a worthwhile advance.
>

It sounds like a giant waste of money.

Fission reactors do work and are currently economically viable, but
are no means at the plateau of technological development. Molten salt
reactors are doable with some research and todays technology for full
conversion of uranium and thorium fuel into energy at 44%
thermodynamic efficency and economically more viable than coal or
light water reactors.

Gas core fission reactors are doable with 20 odd years of R & D,
pumping up thermodynamic efficiency into the 70% range with MHD
conversion, and eventually electromagnetic confinement of the
fissioning plasma for higher temperatures.

It seems reasonable that we should attack fission reactors with much
more effort than fusion reactors. The technology for fusion work will
evolve from technology for advanced fissioning plasma core reactors.
Fusion reactors, unless they are totally aneutronic, have just as much
of a waste issue as fission reactors if not more, and won't be cheap
enough to produce power competitively for over a century.

We have no shortage of fissile material, we can deal with the waste
issue today by building molten salt reactors for waste incineration.
There's no point in pursuing fusion research before fissioning plasma
core reactors.


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