Speaking of wasting money …

[BeAChooser]

More Dishonest HYPE …

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technol ... r-AA17b5EK

Nuclear fusion could be powering British homes in just 15 years, making it the first country in the world to make energy from the process, ministers have said.

… snip …

Speaking on Monday at the West Burton power station in Nottinghamshire, Mr Freeman (BAC - the science minister) unveiled a new company which will be in charge of the nations drive to build the world’s first functions nuclear fusion power station.

… snip …

The timeline of completion (BAC - for STEP) by 2040 has always been regarded as optimistic but speaking at West Burton, where STEP will be built in place of a coal power plant, Mr Freeman signaled a desire to move even faster.

“We’ve decided to deploy into an industrial solution, not just to continually improve the science, but to be the first country to reply fusion as an energy source - the cleanest, greenest, quickest to generate and lowest cost energy for the 21st century,” he said.

Now mind you, I’ve already said the driver for this urgency is a mistaken belief in AGWalarmism. But he's also claiming their plant will be produce the lowest cost energy for the 21st century, which I’ve already shown is sheer poppycock … to use a nice English word.

As I’ve already shown earlier, on per kw electric cost basis, these STEP fusion plants will cost 4 to 17 times what the other power sources that are available cost to build. And the fuel is not going to be as cheap as they claim since they still haven’t figured out how to economically produce tritium.

George Freeman is lying to the UK’s citizens and the world. His degree is in GEOGRAPHY. His so-called expertise is in “life sciences”, simply because before entering Parliament he worked in the field of biomedical venture capital. He knows nothing about physics, energy or fusion. He's a political hack.

[BeAChooser]

https://www.ft.com/content/55bc9d43-126 ... 25ae712e23

Fusion energy breakthrough sparks calls for more government backing

Yes, folks, based on a government funded fusion experiment that took billions of YOUR dollars and half a century to finally get a somewhat positive result that has absolutely nothing to do with the way everyone else is pursuing fusion, the fusion industry (yes, there’s already a multi-billion dollar industry for something not yet in existence because there is money to be made) is calling for more money than they are already spending. You see, the elites who have invested in numerous fusion startups in the hope that they will own YOU when they finally achieve centralized fusion power, now want YOU, the taxpayer, to pay their private industry efforts as well. They want you to pay for your own enslavement by the elites.

And then on top of that, they continue to lie to potential investors, government yokels and the public. For example, the article states “even fusion’s most ardent supporters, who tout its potential to deliver abundant zero-carbon energy, say it will take at least a decade, and probably longer, to translate the NIF achievement into commercially viable power.” Sorry, but a "decade" is a gross understatement and as I said, the NIF *achievement* has nothing to do with the course already set for the development of commercial fusion.

The article says “sceptics joke that, at any given point in time, the dream is always ‘at least 30 years away’. Nevertheless, fusion executives hope the pace of progress can now accelerate.“ The only response to that should be skepticism ... because the NIF approach to fusion has nothing to do with ITER, STEP or any other on-going fusion efforts. Nothing learned in the NIF experiment will translate into something that will speed up those other efforts. It’s ALL hype and next to zero journalists are honest enough to note the obvious. Because they are either stupid or are in on the scam, just like the mainstream media is in on the scams being pushed by the astrophysics *industry*.

Now here’s their proposal FOR YOUR MONEY ...

Since the 1960s, when Soviet scientists fused atoms to generate energy for the first time, most fusion research has taken plan in publicly funded laboratories like the NIF, or the Joint European Torus in Oxford, England. In the past 20 years, such facilities have been complemented by a growing number of privately funded start-ups hoping to speed up the achievement of energy gain and, ultimately, of commercial fusion power. The FIA estimates that at least $5bn has been raised by private fusion companies, much of it in the past 18 months. So far, though, that funding has come largely from billionaire investors and venture capitalists. There has been little government support. At some point in every nascent industry, especially in the energy industry, which is so heavily influenced by public policy, the government comes in and puts its thumb on the scale.

That's what they always say. But the reality is that when government gets involved, government then mucks it up. Go ahead, folks, I challenge you to name one government program the last 50 years that has actually met its goals on time and in budget ...that hasn't become distracted by political agendas that have nothing to do with their goals ... that has been run in an efficient and cost effective manner? I don’t think you can.

Look at ITER, for instance. As the article points out, ITER’s “construction costs were initially estimated at €5bn but have risen to as much as €20bn.” Did you get that? They've increased to 4 times over the initial estimate. And actually, the different is more than that ... but the article isn't trying to be honest. Here’s their logic … “It was a mistake to just bet on one horse. … snip … You’ve got to bet on the race and then see who wins it.” Just think, folks … if those behind this article got their way, you poor taxpayers could have already been forced to pay for 5 ITER like efforts. They might already have spent over $100 billion of your money. But don’t worry … they think that there is still time to do it. They are counting on it ... and with all the graft and corruption in Washington and other governments around the world, it's just more of YOUR dollars, circling the drain. But hey, cheer up ... the debt doesn't matter any more. That's what politicos are now saying. I kid you not.

[BeAChooser]

Here’s a decent article on the progress of fusion efforts around the world …

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busines ... ar-energy/

It gives a pretty good summary of the various efforts, indicates each one’s approach to producing fusion (although it doesn't explain them), and generally where they stand, progress wise. Of course, being a mainstream publication, the article doesn’t dare challenge the AGWalarmist urgency to go zero carbon. But at least the article doesn’t overhype the progress so far or promise commercial fusion in 10 years or 20 years like so many do.

In fact, the article states

But as exciting as it will be if the commercial players reach their goals, it is unlikely that fusion reactors will have significant presence on power grids before 2040, let alone deliver the world from carbon by 2050.

“It would be extremely premature to start putting fusion into electricity supply assumptions, at any point through the middle of this century,” analysts with the U.S. investment firm Raymond James Financial Inc. wrote in a December brief.

But even that date ASSUMES that the current machines actually work. Which they may not.

In any case, all the claims made in the press about fusion preventing the looming end of the world that AGWalarmists have predicted are nonsense. In other words, the race for fusion has been sold to each participating country's citizens with outright lies. And they can get away with that because there is no accountability in the world any more ... for ANYTHING. Just saying ...

[BeAChooser]

Another country joins the boondoggle …

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20230223004500320

SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Thursday started preparations to begin building a nuclear fusion reactor after 2035 and produce electric power around 2050 in a bid to keep up with the intensifying international competition for the future clean and limitless energy, the science ministry said.

… snip …

Under the government-led long-term outline, approved by the national fusion commission Thursday, the concept of South Korea's first fusion reactor will have a capacity of 500 megawatt electrical, or 500 MWe, with a major radius of 7 meters, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.

… snip …

"If ITER succeeds in substantiating the feasibility of fusion power generation around 2035-38, a fusion power plant will be likely available around 2050," Yoo Suk-jae, president of the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE), said in a press conference Wednesday.

… snip …

While carrying out basic scientific and engineering research, the government will form a task force to draw the broad outlines of function and form of a new fusion reactor later this year, and come up with a final design by 2035. If the reactor is constructed as planned, it will begin operations around 2050, the ministry added.

So BEFORE ITER demonstrates the feasibility (assuming it will), they will have a final design? LOL! Think about the logic of that, folks.

And then the article spouts this half truth …

The move came as research and investment into the safe, limitless zero-carbon energy have been heating up since U.S. scientists have achieved a net energy gain from a fusion reaction in late December.

How do you think most readers will take that statement? They’ll think US scientists produced more energy from the fusion reaction than was needed to create the reaction. But anyone who has read this thread knows that’s not true … not even close.

I’m telling you folks, this RUSH to fusion in the name of zero carbon and AGWalarmism is going to be hugely wasteful.

But hey … it’s your money. If you let it go on without complaining, you have no one to blame.

Meanwhile, note that South Korea is continuing to build more ordinary nuclear power plants, to add to the 25 they already have in operation. Whereas the US is shutting them down gambling all its marbles on untested and unrealistic technology expectations. But those involved are making lots of money. Who do you think is going to foot the bill for all this waste in the end? Three guesses ... and it won't be them. Just saying ...

[Cargo]

To throw some levity to the insanity, this pitch of lawn and sand could be yours for a the pittance of 27 Million US$.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inli ... k=sCfBgbZi

[BeAChooser]

To throw some levity to the insanity, this pitch of lawn and sand could be yours for a the pittance of 27 Million US$.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inli ... k=sCfBgbZi

Wow! That’s some pricy real-estate. And not more that a few feet above sea level right next to the ocean by the looks of it. It will be interesting to see whether an AGWalarmist buys it given that a study showed that Naples is in the top ten for cities to be underwater by 2100: https://www.fox4now.com/news/protecting ... er-by-2100 . This source (https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltre ... Table.html) indicates that the trend in Naples is a rise in sea level of 1 ft per century with a 95% confidence range of 0.14 feet per century. That seems reasonably consistent with this: https://www.vims.edu/research/products/ ... /index.php . Will fusion save that house!

[BeAChooser]

More shysters enter the fray …

https://www.yahoo.com/now/european-gaus ... 00122.html

THE EUROPEAN GAUSS FUSION INITIATIVE SEEKS TO USE MAGNETIC FUSION TO ENSURE A CLEAN AND SAFE ENERGY SUPPLY

Gauss Fusion GmbH is a greentech venture founded in 2022 by various European companies from Germany, France, Italy and Spain with extensive experience in fusion technology. In February 2023, Gauss Fusion completed a founders’ pre-seed financing round with €8 million in initial capital, marking a first milestone on the way to a clean and secure energy source to complement renewable energies.

The Gauss Fusion Initiative has set itself the goal of bringing the first European GW-class (electric) fusion power plant (Gauss GIGA fusion power plant) online by 2045.

This is nonsense. Claiming to bring a GIGAWATT fusion power plant on line by 2045, when the concept of a tokamak isn't even close to be proven and when that’s more than twice the wattage that anyone else is promising even later in time is a joke.

Developing clean and safe energy sources for a modern “net-zero” society is a key challenge of our time.

Blah blah blah … repeat the lie justifying this whole boondoggle.

The entirety of the energy supply cannot be covered by renewable energies alone, not least because of the space requirements and the natural fluctuations in the generation of solar and wind energy.

To suggest that renewables (wind and solar) will provide more than a fraction of our current energy needs is utter nonsense considering that all renewables together currently provide only a quarter of global energy generation. And the only reason the percentage is that high is that governments are ignoring the extra costs now being passed onto consumers or actively helping to mitigate those consumer costs with subsidies that end up as a tax on their citizens. The idea that they can eliminate fuels in the next 27 years is delusion of the first order. Or it's a knowing lie to see their agenda.

Under its motto of “Fusion with Integrity”, Gauss Fusion is pursuing the ambitious but realistic goal of providing green energy through magnetic fusion – without raising any false expectations.

“Fusion with Integrity”? LOL! They think they aren't raising false expectations with a promise to have gigawatt plants pumping energy into the grid by 2045? LOL! Who do these jokers think they’re fooling? .

Dr. Frank Laukien, co-founder and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Gauss Fusion GmbH, is all too aware of this: “To develop a European magnetic fusion power plant – and not just a pilot or demonstration plant – by 2045 is an ambitious but realistic goal”

LIAR. It’s not at all realistic.

that we can achieve not only thanks to our advanced technology, but also through our public-private partnership approach. We expect synergies to emerge from our industrial organizational structure and the cooperation with excellent scientists and institutes with substantial experience in magnetic fusion and plasma physics.”

Blah blah blah. Those are words without any substance. They are marketing tripe.

Frédérick Bordry, former Director of Accelerators and Technology and Honorary Member of CERN, adds: “Fusion on the Sun has been taking place for more than 4.5 billion years and is essential for life on earth. Reproducing it and controlling it in power plants would give us access to an important and sustainable source of decarbonized energy.”

"Reproducing it"? More nonsense. A tokamak clearly does NOT reproduce what happens in the sun. These people are shysters of the first order, set on one goal … to take the public and investors for all they are worth. Nice houses and lifestyles are their real goal.

“Ever since scientists in the US made an historic breakthrough in fusion in mid-December last year, when more energy was produced than consumed for the first time ever by fusing hydrogen isotopes, fusion has become the focus of political attention as a clean and safe source of energy. “

First, the US experiment had NOTHING to do with the tokamaks proposed by these characters. Second NIF's experiment did no produce more than the power that was consumed by the experiment. Not even close. This is just garbage to sell clueless investors so they’ll provide money that will make the shysters wealthy.

Frank Laukien: “I’m pleased that many political decision-makers in Germany, in other European countries, and the EU have recognized the opportunities offered by fusion energy, as we can see from the recent joint statement by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, made on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Élysée Treaty.”

Oh … so this has something to do with friendship between France and Germany? LOL!

Of course, modern day shysters have to have to have a fancy website. It’s required …

https://www.gauss-fusion.com

Mind you, they are a little late to the game. Which make the notion that they'll be first to reach the finish even more ludicrous.

And what’s really concerning is they claim that they’ll move at “venture speed”. I see a lot of money going down the drain.

[BeAChooser]

https://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/news ... t-9302920/

New fusion plan will be more than just a new power plant, says Nottinghamshire County Council

… snip …

The major project, which aims to bring nuclear fusion energy to the decommissioned West Burton A power station, was confirmed in October.

The site was selected ahead of 15 other UK locations and is expected to bring more than £20bn and up to 10,000 jobs to the area once complete.

I’m confused by this statement. At first I thought they were saying the power plant will cost £20bn and require 10,000 jobs to build? But then I noticed the “once completed”? So it’s going to cost another £20bn once completed? And the 10000 jobs in the area will not be construction jobs, but service jobs to support the operation of the reactor? Perhaps the latter since the article says “the hub is expected to feature on-site businesses and industries relating to STEP fusion” and “an on-site skills centre to train people in the field.” Plus it will apparently require a “new railway station” that will “allow people to access thousands of new jobs. Sure … I imagine everyone is going to want to live near a fusion power plant. Who wouldn’t?

Now mind you, they’d sold the public on the idea that they know enough to proceed with building actual working £20bn (or is it £40bn) power plants. Yet, this article … https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/n ... -on-fusion … states that “The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the University of Sheffield are partnering on technologies to propel fusion energy towards commercialisation. As part of the collaboration, Sheffield will appoint two new Chairs in fusion research.”

One Chair “will focus on ‘innovation in materials design and processing to improve powerplant performance and the decommissioning and recycling of new materials developed’.”  The other Chair will investigate “fundamental engineering challenges in the qualification of components, fabricated assemblies and systems for use within future fusion powerplants’.” They admit that “The challenge of how we test and qualify components for future use in a fusion environment is critical for the delivery of a fusion powerplant.” So there are still challenges to qualifying components and fabricating assemblies, but they're plowing ahead anyway, while promising the reactor will be built by 2040? Hmmmm.

And it " is also expected the two positions will attract collaborations from a wider range of industrial partners who will be able to sponsor students and work in partnership with them on research projects.” Research projects? Sounds like they already don’t trust their *Final Design* for the reactor.

[BeAChooser]

Those that depend on the Fusion boondoggle continue to beat the drum. Everybody is busy promoting themselves. In the last week …

https://news.yahoo.com/could-fusion-ele ... 07554.html “Could a fusion electricity plant come here in the next decade? … snip … Philip B. Snyder, interim director of the Fusion Energy Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In a recent talk to Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (FORNL), Snyder said scientists have reasons to believe the world has entered “a very exciting new era for fusion energy development.” … snip … Oak Ridge hosts the office in charge of the $1.2 billion U.S. program helping to build ITER, an international tokamak experiment in France supported also by China, the European Union, India, Russia, Japan and South Korea. If all goes well, ITER could be demonstrating the ability to generate 10 times as much energy as it requires by the mid-2030s, paving the way for fusion power facilities.”

That last sentence is an utter LIE as has been pointed out on this thread. And he’s busy selling the idea that Oak Ridge is a good place for a future fusion pilot plant. And promoting it with the “climate crisis” lie. Government weenies really are despicable these days.

https://magneticsmag.com/magnetic-conta ... e-century/. “Focused on magnetic technology for the confinement of fusion energy, German venture-backed startups Gauss Fusion and Proxima Fusion are moving resolutely to become front-runners in the global race to pioneer commercial fusion power – seen by many as what could be one of the greatest breakthroughs of this century. … snip … Fusion power plants are modelled after the sun.”

They don’t really know how the sun works. But they'll tell any lie to justify their self-enriching boondoggles.

https://min.news/en/tech/d09c486b1a1f24 ... 532d4.html “China has started to build a nuclear fusion engineering test reactor with a success rate of 90% … snip … After the success of CFETR, the next step is to build a fusion demonstration reactor (DEMO) to accumulate operational experience for fusion commercial reactors. Fusion commercial reactors have a stand-alone capacity of more than 5 million kilowatts. When 100 fusion reactors are installed across the country, there will be 500 million kilowatts, and their power generation accounts for half of the country. The other half can be composed of wind power, photovoltaic power, hydropower and a small amount of natural gas power generation. CFETR will start construction in 2021. Instead of waiting 50 years for controllable fusion power generation, it will take 10 years to build a test reactor, 20 years to build a demonstration reactor, and 30 years to build a commercial reactor."

Yeah … we'll see. (sarcasm)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahwin ... 2dcc9b3957 “Who Will Lead The Age Of Fusion Energy? … snip … The United Kingdom, Germany, France, South Korea, and Japan have fusion energy programs underway. China sees the massive implications of nuclear fusion in its competition with the U.S. for global supremacy in the 21st century. It is ramping up spending for fusion energy research and facilities and has reported its own scientific breakthrough—a world record in sustaining a nuclear fusion reaction. Earlier this year, an analysis by the Japanese research company astamuse reported China has filed more patents in nuclear fusion technology that any other country over the past decade. There are now 43 fusion companies known worldwide, reports the Fusion Industry Association, and the infant industry has attracted more than $6 billion in funding. Of these, the United States has the most runners in the race—25 of them—and most of this investment. These companies are working on different concepts for a pilot scale demonstration. However, they are too small to solve the host of challenges they face on their own. … snip … Historically, the commercialization pathway for energy technology has taken 30 to 50 years. But fusion energy has reached a critical turning point. Projections for putting it on the grid range from 10 to more than 20 years.”

This article suggests we must be “bold” and spend much more money than we are now spending so we are the big winner. And guess who will present America’s plan to commercial fusion at the upcoming UN summit in Dubai, COP28? John Kerry, our Special Presidential Envoy for Climate ... another politicized effort built on lies. With that sort of leadership, do you think America's fusion effort has a chance at success? (sarcasm)

[BeAChooser]

At a time when resources are becoming scarce, think of the waste in money and minds when governments fund nonsense like this …

https://www.livescience.com/space/black ... -heres-how

Humans could use black holes as batteries, physics paper claims. Here's how.

This investigation has no value in the near term to anyone living on earth … other than the authors who are likely using money taken from taxpayers to fund this. Even the author admitted “he does not know if we will ever see a battery like this.” The ONLY explanation I can think of for the Communist Chinese funding this is that someone in their military imagined weaponizing it ... God Help Us. And meanwhile, another person who graduated in the west (the UK) wastes a degree in physics reporting this sort of nonsense in order to keep the West's dumbed-down citizens entertained and *hopeful*. Just saying ...

[BeAChooser]

Looks like there may be a new reason to call ITER the biggest boondoggle EVER.

https://www.businessinsider.com/largest ... an-2023-12

The largest fusion reactor in the world fired up in Japan.

… snip ..

Japan's new 50-foot-tall, 40-foot-wide reactor is a type of donut-shaped device called a tokamak.

… snip …

The tokamak cost an estimated 560 million Euro (about $600 million) to build and is an experimental device, meaning it's not designed to provide commercial electricity.

The article notes that ITER works the same way, is just twice the size and isn’t expected to see first fusion until 2025.

The justification for ITER now is this …

The reason ITER is so important is because it's designed to achieve net energy. In other words, once ITER is operational, the plasma it generates is designed to eventually produce 10 times more energy than the energy required to form the plasma in the first place.

But as I’ve shown, that’s a lie. ITER will not achieve net energy … nowhere near it. What the Japanese machine will do … at a fraction of the cost … is essentially the same thing ITER was supposed to have done ... understand the physics. As the article says

Once the updates to JT-60SA are complete, scientists there will "develop plasmas that are similar to those expected in ITER and in DEMO so that we can make experiments to help them prepare," Apollonatos said.

DEMO is the power plant that Japan is working on that will "demonstrate the capability of harnessing electricity from fusion." They hope to have it running by 2050. … so essentially, commercial fusion is STILL at best 30 years away. Some things NEVER change.

Not finding Dark Matter is another thing. Just saying …

[BeAChooser]

The mainstream media is again busy making the public believe the controlled commercial fusion is near at hand. They’ve already published loads of articles about LLNL’s latest annoucement ... that for the first time, they created a fusion reaction that produced more energy than it consumed. But gee, didn’t they already announce that months ago to great fanfare? Why yes they did with the head of the DOE basking in the limelight … pointing to a glorious future with fusion pumping out oodles of electricity ... before they found they couldn't reproduce the result. But ok, I’ll grant that this time, after spending billions and billions of dollars on this over decade, they actually did figure out how to repeatedly zap tiny, tiny capsules of fuel and release more energy than imparted to the capsule by 192 very expensive lasers. So here we are being bombarded again by MSM article carrying promises of fusion power plants on the horizon now. A new era is at hand!

But ... how to get there using laser fusion? You see, they may be hyping this as leading to commercial fusion but the purpose of LLNL is to build weapons. In fact, this (https://www.llnl.gov/article/49576/igni ... ip-mission ) admits as much, saying that “the primary mission and driving goal behind the experiment that day [Dec 5th) was ]stockpile stewardship science." "A big part of our science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program is making sure we have experimental access to methods for weapons testing that allow us to test our calculations, check our simulations, develop our intuition, and test the understanding we have from the nuclear tests we did during the underground testing era,” said Mark Herrmann, program director for Weapon Physics and Design at LLNL. … snip … “From the stockpile stewardship perspective, reaching ignition is a real testament to the enabling capabilities that help us assure the safety, reliability and resilience of our nuclear arsenal,” Berzak Hopkins said. “And from an energy standpoint, this demonstration of proof-of-principle is groundbreaking. Coupling those two together, it's an inspirational moment, as it opens the door for an entirely new experimental capability that will now be enabled at NIF.”

But at least some people see the truth. This article (https://www.wired.com/story/the-real-fu ... ades-away/ ) cites Mark Cappelli, a physicist at Stanford University. The article says “he cautions that those pinning hopes on fusion as an abundant, carbon-free, and waste-free power source in the near future may be left waiting. The difference, he says, is in how scientists define breakeven. Today, the NIF researchers said they got as much energy out as their laser fired at the experiment—a massive, long-awaited achievement. But the problem is that the energy in those lasers represents a tiny fraction of the total power involved in firing up the lasers. By that measure, NIF is getting way less than it’s putting in. ‘That type of breakeven is way, way, way, way down the road,’ Cappelli says. ‘That’s decades down the road. Maybe even a half-century down the road.’" The article also quotes Mark Jacobson, an energy researcher at Stanford. He concurs. “Despite today’s announcement, fusion is neither commercial nor close to commercial, so it is still vaporware.”

But don’t worry, folks, the powers that be will keep spending billions and billions of YOUR money promising that commercial fusion power plants are only years away. Just like they keep doing in pursuit of another chimera ... dark matter.

[BeAChooser]

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/nucl ... 68625.html

Nuclear fusion enters ‘new era’ after major breakthrough for near-limitless clean energy

... snip ...

The lab used the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to fire 192 laser beams at a frozen pellet of isotopes held within a diamond capsule suspended in a gold cylinder.

Like I said, the MSM is really hyping this news. Diamond and gold? Be sure to invest in futures!

But notice that nowhere in the article do they tell you the cost of the facility and each test. (I told you that earlier (it's a LOT!). They admit they only created enough energy to boil a kettle, but are hopeful that "scaling up this proof-of-concept could herald a 'new era' of energy." Never mind how hard that will be ... or how long it will take. Apparently, Nature and the Independent are not interested in giving the reader a balanced perspective on this issue. No, they are only interested in selling you on the idea of spending BILLIONS and BILLIONS more ... of your money ... to pursue this chimera. And of course they toss in the bogus Climate Change ogre to scare you into willingly parting with you money. Oh ... and did they mention in the article that each pellet of fuel they use costs more than a million dollar? To boil a teakettle of water? No ... because that doesn't serve their agenda.

[BeAChooser]

I’m watching this one with interest …

https://news.webindia123.com/news/Artic ... 56361.html

Helion considered a frontrunner in the race to develop cost-effective commercial fusion power, plans to be the first company globally to achieve the significant milestone of producing electricity from its prototype Polaris reactor by mid-2024.

This involves demonstrating a sustained, net-energy fusion reaction, where the energy generated exceeds the energy required to initiate the reaction--a critical goal for any fusion energy developer.

The reason is as I said earlier … Helion’s approach is in line with the notions of EU. Their device doesn’t try to maintain a stable fusion reaction like a tokamak or stellarator. And it doesn’t remove the heat from the plasma with a heat exchanger and turbines to convert steam to electricity. Instead, pulsed magnetic fields accelerate plasma into a burn chamber where the plasma fuses. The plasma expands, then magnetic coils in the walls of the reactor generate electricity from this moving plasma. The process is then repeated over and over and over, much like a diesel engine operates. If they can they deliver on the 2024 promise, it will be stunning!

[BeAChooser]

https://www.space.com/when-will-we-achieve-fusion-power

We've been 'close' to achieving fusion power for 50 years. When will it actually happen?

Good question! Here’s the author’s answer …

I can't say for certain when, if ever, we'll achieve sustainable fusion power. But here are my odds, constructed entirely unscientifically: a 10% chance in the next 20 years, a 50% chance in the next century, a 30% chance within the next 100 years after that, and a 10% chance of it never happening.

The rational he gives is that “Fusion power is what I like to call a generational, or  century-level, challenge.”

Well, folks … that doesn’t seem very promising to me. Yet, leftist controlled governments around the world have plans to spend literally TRILLIONS of dollars developing and building commercial fusion reactors in the next 30-50 years because they say the threat of global warming is that serious. So I'd ask the author ... is that just going to be money wasted by government … on a scale never seen before?

Now Paul Sutter, the author of this article, is an astrophysicist/science communicator for whom I have little respect (read these: http://thunderbolts.info/wp/forum3/phpB ... tter#p6332 and http://thunderbolts.info/wp/forum3/phpB ... tter#p8807 ). He believes in all sorts of gnomes.

He laments that “fusion research has been relegated to the same priority as most other lines of research, which means it will take roughly a century to come to fruition.” I hardly think that the 100 BILLION dollars or so that’s been spent on fusion research since the 50s is evidence of the same priority as other lines of research. And currently fusion is not a low priority at all. Every major country is spending billions to achieve it.

And then, surprisingly, Sutter says, “But that's OK. We'll take our time with this, we'll get it right, and it will be worth it.” Take our time? That’s a very odd thing for someone who is a declared, hardcore, AGWalarmist (read this: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/26/opinions ... index.html) to say. Me thinks he speaks with forked tongue.