<story><title>A Commercial Path to Fusion</title><url>https://physicsworld.com/a/a-commercial-path-to-fusion/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>hairytrog</author><text>This is R&amp;amp;D - not a commercial path.&lt;p&gt;These types of fusion projects are trying to prove the most basic piece of the puzzle: net energy generation. And it is a big problem, even for Commonwealth. I&amp;#x27;ve heard that the magnets are underperforming by about a factor of 2 - and that&amp;#x27;s 4 years into the project.&lt;p&gt;But commercialization is a lot more than just proving that the concept is physically possible. It was proven possible that man could walk on the moon, but it&amp;#x27;s not a commercial activity 50 years in. Commercialization for nuclear energy systems means global deployment, mass manufacturing, lack of proliferation risk, extreme safety, etc. Fusion systems like Commonwealth&amp;#x27;s do not meet any of these criteria. They are constantly generating radioactive waste because they have to breed their fuel and reprocess it on site.&lt;p&gt;To commercialize, you have to be able to deploy the technology in a significantly better way than traditional fission. These large fusion prototypes ($65B for ITER and $5B for Commonwealth based on their 2015 white paper, so probably 2-4x larger now) exacerbate traditional nuclear&amp;#x27;s cost problems because they are construction projects that will last decades. Viable nuclear solutions will be factory manufactured rather than constructed.&lt;p&gt;For comments from MIT dissenter in 80s that stand true today: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;orcutt.net&amp;#x2F;weblog&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;The-Trouble-With-Fusion_MIT_Tech_Review_1983.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;orcutt.net&amp;#x2F;weblog&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;The-Trou...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;For a review of fusion problems: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;thebulletin.org&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;iter-is-a-showcase-for-the-drawbacks-of-fusion-energy&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;thebulletin.org&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;iter-is-a-showcase-for-the-d...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>A Commercial Path to Fusion</title><url>https://physicsworld.com/a/a-commercial-path-to-fusion/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>evdev</author><text>For a breakdown of the reasoning behind the project, if you haven&amp;#x27;t already seen it:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=L0KuAx1COEk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=L0KuAx1COEk&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>