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Commercial_Soft6833 t1_iu75key wrote

Wonder if we'll ever see fusion power plants in my lifetime.

36 going on 37.

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lollypatrolly t1_iu816se wrote

No fusion project has reached more than 10% of breakeven energy generation so far, despite billions invested.

It would require some incredible breakthroughs in technology.

We'll keep funding it, but in the meantime there are actual working solutions that we should be embracing, like nuclear fission as well as hydro/solar/wind + storage technologies.

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No-Reach-9173 t1_iu7fou1 wrote

I would say almost with 100% certainty as long as ITER is successful and it is so over engineered it probably will be.

Every major country in the world is still working together despite the political shit show the rest of the world is. And several countries as so certain they are starting to build the accompanying support network that will be needed to run them.

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isowater t1_iu7q6zl wrote

Fusion would be incredibly expensive contrary to popular belief. It will most likely initially only used by the military and space missions

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No-Reach-9173 t1_iu7r2pz wrote

Everything new is super expensive.

A Cray 2 cost 12M when I was a child my S21 Ultra cost 1200 dollars and is 850 times as powerful.

The first functional fusion reactor (if it is ITER) is going to be outrageously expensive because it is all custom built on site like nuclear reactors are.

Fusion has an advantage though as it won't puke radioactive waste everywhere so they will likely be built factory style and assembled on site.

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zj_y33t t1_iu7z9w8 wrote

What if this dude gets hit by a truck tomorrow?

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No-Reach-9173 t1_iu7zl07 wrote

Well the short answer is that we are all screwed because that means the aliens arrived and someone was staring at them and ran him over.

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wastingvaluelesstime t1_iu7e7g5 wrote

I think so. Lots of private companies are working on it with a goal of being ready within that timeframe

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Sketti_n_butter t1_iu7muej wrote

At this point, no one has made it. It's best to assume it's not possible until scientists figure out how it is possible. Work with the solutions on the table and that can be rolled out over the next few years, not a solution that doesn't exist and that we cannot make any plans for.

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Oh_ffs_seriously t1_iu87pzm wrote

There's a MIT-related company that wanted to make a demonstration reactor that would output more energy than it needed by 2025. The little hitch is that they rely on superconducting magnets made by a Russian company.

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