<story><title>A faster, cheaper path to fusion energy</title><url>https://phys.org/news/2018-11-faster-cheaper-path-fusion-energy.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>noetic_techy</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve seen the MIT lecture that presented this.  Here are the main hurdles:&lt;p&gt;1) Estimated $40 billion USD need to build a test reactor.&lt;p&gt;2) Not enough FLiBe fluid (Low-Z fluid) on the planet for the reaction chamber.  Would need large scale manufacturing.&lt;p&gt;Source:  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;KkpqA8yG9T4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;KkpqA8yG9T4&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>baking</author><text>The large scale project using low temperature superconductors is ITER, initially proposed at $5 billion and currently estimated at $20 billion for a scientific test reactor.&lt;p&gt;The MIT ARC design is half the size using high temperature superconductors and should be in the $1-2 billion range for a full-scale 500MW pilot production fusion reactor.&lt;p&gt;What is currently being proposed (the subject of the papers being delivered tomorrow) and funded with private money is a $200-250 million SPARC (Smallest Possible ARC) that is half the size again of the full-size ARC.&lt;p&gt;So yeah, you are off by a factor of 160.</text></comment>
<story><title>A faster, cheaper path to fusion energy</title><url>https://phys.org/news/2018-11-faster-cheaper-path-fusion-energy.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>noetic_techy</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve seen the MIT lecture that presented this.  Here are the main hurdles:&lt;p&gt;1) Estimated $40 billion USD need to build a test reactor.&lt;p&gt;2) Not enough FLiBe fluid (Low-Z fluid) on the planet for the reaction chamber.  Would need large scale manufacturing.&lt;p&gt;Source:  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;KkpqA8yG9T4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;KkpqA8yG9T4&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JamesCoyne</author><text>Tossing in two cents to say the video you linked is a very good overview of the different experimental approaches to fusion. Presented by Dennis Whyte of MIT, it obviously extols the virtues of SPARC device.</text></comment>