Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by fizigura 1036 days ago
For a few billion USD you could build a real power plant of this type. Sounds expensive, but consider how much money nuclear fission did cost initially, and how much money we burn on other stuff, then it's not unthinkable to have somebody rich chip in and make it happen. (Germany just gave $10bn subsidies for a domestic Intel factory.)
1 comments
Guvante 1036 days ago
They managed to handle what a fission reactor outputs every second in this experiment.

I don't think that points to a commercial reactor whenever someone spends a few billions.

link
fizigura 1033 days ago
That's how research works. The first fission experiments couldn't power half a small country either.

When you listen to the guys from this original article then you'd know that for 10-20bn USD you could likely build a real power plant with this tech within 5 years. It's obviously not without risk, which is why nobody is doing it. But the technical feasibility is there.

They also point out that once the first-of-a-kind installation exists, subsequent models will be way cheaper and way better since you'd have learned a lot and streamlined the process.

But we choose to use public money for fossil subsidies instead, cause jobs, or something.

link
Guvante 1033 days ago
The US has spent (inflation adjusted) $34 billion on fusion as of the end of 2021. Assuming no real change it would be $35 billion as of the end of 2023.

http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2021/ph241/margraf1/

Fusion has been "a decade away" since before the turn of the millennium.

To say we should just throw $10-20 billion at a power plant and hope something comes out is not a good idea.

We should wait until one of the many multi billion dollar research plants is able to get even 10% of a reasonable to target energy output before even thinking about that.

Otherwise we would likely just sign the death of fusion in the public eye. Could you imagine the backlash if a $40 billion dollar project couldn't even produce power after two decades? (Going off how public works costs and timelines have been going is the reason for higher values)

link