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are we SURE that we need the collision energies this new collider will give us?

Yes, if you read the reports they give some examples:

"However, several experimental facts do require the extension of the Standard Model and explanations are needed for observations such as the abundance of matter over antimatter, the striking evidence for dark matter and the non-zero neutrino masses. Theoretical issues such as the hierarchy problem, and, more in general, the dynamical origin of the Higgs mechanism, do likewise point to the existence of physics beyond the Standard Model."

Maybe the money would be better spent on bio-medical research, genetic manipulation of food crops, Fusion energy commercialization or space exploration?

Huge amounts of money are already going towards bio-medical research, both by governments and commercial interests: "Globally, in excess of US$200bn is invested each year in biomedical research." link
There is already a multi-billion dollar international research project on fusion energy (see ITER). Fusion energy commercialization in an engineering challenge and not fundamental research and is already be addressed by commercial investment: Tokamak Energy, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, TAE Technologies, General Fusion, Helion Energy, LPPFusion, Proton Scientific and others.
Space exploration is being funded: "global government investment in space exploration totaled $14.6 billion in 2017" link and space exploration is also going commercial, witness SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and United Launch Alliance.

There is a company called General Fusion http://generalfusion.com/ that is attempting to use liquid metal fusion containment. Sounds very cool, in an almost steampunk sort of way. Being a physics noob, I'm wondering if anybody who actually knows this stuff can comment on whether or not their idea makes any sense?

you'll drop the dead-end Tokamaks and back these guys

http://generalfusion.com/

Getting the energy out of these systems is treated as an afterthought, and such a machine will invariably be damaged by normal operation. This is one of the reasons why the General Fusion approach is so attractive; the first wall is liquid and can't be damaged. It is an integral part of the system which is also ideal for transferring the heat produced by fusion, rather than something bolted onto an already dubious system. If it is successful, General Fusion's device will be far more practical, and have a good chance of being economical. The Stellarator is a fascinating piece of engineering, but the Tokamak and its derivatives will never be remotely economical. That is the result of the science and inherent physical limitations, not something that can be overcome with some clever trick or billions in research.

The other attractive solution to the first wall problem is to pursue devices which can fusion an aneutronic fuel like p-B11. No messy neutrons and thermal conversion necessary, just beams of energy that can be directly converted to electricity, without damaging the machine. The Polywell and DPF are both promising in this area, and could be funded with pocket lint from the ITER project.

Magnetized Target Fusion, such as is being developed by the Canadian company General Fusion, solves all these problems.You surround a microscopic amount of tritium and deuterium in a sphere, filled with a molten bath of metal, and hit the outsides of it with computer-controlled hammers. Properly calibrated, the shockwaves concentrate in the center to briefly allow fusion conditions to occur. All the neutron energy is absorbed by the molten metal, causing absolutely no damage to the machine. So it can actually operate indefinitely.

While hundreds of billions of Euros are wasted on approaches that cannot possibly work, this little private company is plugging along, starting to scale up their first practical demonstration system.

http://www.generalfusion.com/

http://www.generalfusion.com/

They hold a couple of patents and published three papers (the rest in the list is references on their approach to fusion).

The energy in neutrons is not unrecoverable.

Not only is it potentially recoverable but there is a company here in Canada looking at building a fusion reactor which can recover it. The reactor design is rather radical and by no means proven but having met the guy behind the company if it is at all possible he'll be the one to make it work!

Pish! I've met the guy behind a local company, here in the U.S. that is looking at building a radical new design cold fusion reactor. He tells me that there is a net gain output of 11ty% and it is totally sustainable and green to boot!

I laugh at your puny Canadian vapor projects!

The energy in neutrons is not unrecoverable.

Not only is it potentially recoverable but there is a company here in Canada looking at building a fusion reactor which can recover it. The reactor design is rather radical and by no means proven but having met the guy behind the company if it is at all possible he'll be the one to make it work!

In the context of this article, I misread your last words as "and reigniting our leaders", which might be appropriate too! ;-)

But, I am cheering for General Fusion anyway! http://www.generalfusion.com/

Paul B.

http://www.generalfusion.com/

In the same vein but different: what are your thoughts on General Fusion. As a physicist myself, but not in the area of plasma/fusion research, their premise seems reasonable and they acknowledge that they may only have a 10-50% chance of success in their design. As experts in the field are there any clear reasons why such a design will not work and, if not, why is there not more support for such efforts within the plasma/fusion academic community?

Basically, this should be a 'hero' project. Like a moon shot.

By that argument after spending $100B we'll get ITER/NIF to work but the cost of building any more fusion plants will be so overwhelmingly expensive that we will not build anymore for the next 40 (and counting) years. Instead why not take a chance on something a lot simpler like General Fusion. These guys have a beautiful reactor design and are working on a shoestring budget to develop it. While the chance of success is not known (they themselves estimate it to be 10-50%) if it were successful it would be instantly deployable and have massive repercussions for energy generation - certainly the basic physics behing it is good the only question is in the complexities of plasma dynamics and interactions and whether they can fire the pistons to compress the molten lead with a sufficiently accurate timing.

What do you think of their approach? They is a mechanical-acoustic means of compressing the plasma.

http://www.generalfusion.com/

From their web site: General Fusion is a Canadian venture capital-backed company led by a team of experienced physicists and technology development experts. We are working with government, institutional and industrial partners and consultants to develop a full-scale proof-of-concept fusion generator to demonstrate a net gain in energy within four years – something that traditional approaches have never achieved. Commercialization would take place before the end of the decade. Image of a Plasma Injector

“The closest to a potential reactor scheme is what General Fusion is proposing.” —R. Kirkpatrick, Los Alamos National Laboratory [Popular Science, January 2009]

If you believe the folks at General Fusion

Some of you may remember the write-up they had in PopSci a few years ago. Basically this thing is a brute force steam punk style fusion generator. There is a several metre diameter sphere of molten lead and lithium that is spun up to create a vortex. Plasma is injected into the vortex cavity and them BLAM!!! a bunch of giant steam powered pistons bang on the outside of the sphere to create a compression shockwave. The shockwave compresses the D-T plasma, fast neutrons are captured by Li to make Be, which then decays to make more delicious tritium. Grab some energy from heat, then revortex, reinject, resmash, repeat. The great thing is the clanging sound lets you know it's working.

I've been fortunate to visit the facility a few times, and the progress they've made over the past few years is astounding. These guys are the real deal. Hopefully in just a few short years the reactor will be up and running and we can stop spending billions and billions on less practical reactor designs.

All that said, a couple bad storms could devastate a purely solar powered grid.

Not with sufficient advances in long-distance superconducting transmission and grid-scale storage, and, as you say, global distribution of solar power generation.

Also, you don't put all your eggs in one basket. A mix of solar, wind, maybe ocean-wave, geothermal, and hydro would do the trick.

I for one though, am holding out hope for the steam-punk version of fusion power: http://generalfusion.com/

In 2014, General Fusion will have us all living like in Star Trek.

As a plasma physicist I'd be curious to know your thoughts on this attempted fusion reactor. It seems a very interesting and potentially clever design and very different to anything I've heard of before but, while it seems to pass the smell test I'm a particle, not a plasma physicist so that does not mean much!

Here's another wild concept in fusion:

http://www.generalfusion.com/

Be nice if it works before you're 60!

Probably true but I am praying for these guys (not a Polywell).
http://www.generalfusion.com/

Thank you for that link to General Confusion. Made my day. Check out the freshman T-rex with his lava lamp and the sordid diatripe:

http://www.generalfusion.com/fossil_fuel_crisis.php

The planet was covered with dense clouds and the atmosphere contained a high concentration of carbon dioxide, producing tropical conditions north of the 45th parallel. For example, many dinosaur fossils were excavated in Alberta, Canada. As the earth's crust cooled down, volcanic activity reduced.

Riddle of Burgess Shale's fossil-rich deposits solved

The site, close to the B.C.-Alberta border, is considered crucial to understanding the so-called Cambrian "explosion" of life - a time when the future Canadian land mass was drifting in tropical climes close to the Earth's equator.

In my historical atlas, the equator is considerably south of the 45th latitude. The dinosaur fossils in Alberta are equatorial in origin. But hey, if you can't get that right, no obstacle to solving the fusion problem. Like it's not a hard problem or anything. The typical Alberta fat cat oilman probably doesn't believe in plate tectonics to begin with. Just a bunch of mud we turn into money. Now they're all excited about version 2: just a bunch of water we turn into money.

BTW, the Royal Tyrrell Museum in the Alberta badlands is pretty kick-ass if you're into bones.

OK between this and the General Fusion guys http://www.generalfusion.com/ Canada has got water and energy completely licked. http://www.saltworkstech.com/ OK actually I'm still trying to run the numbers on the both of them (and waiting for some peer reviewed publications.)

1. A bit too colorful and garrulous website for a honest poor startup.

2. Butt-ugly font at that.

3. Relocation to Canada will be required. Are you kidding me?!!!

1. A bit too colorful and garrulous website for a honest poor startup.

2. Butt-ugly font at that.

3. Relocation to Canada will be required. Are you kidding me?!!!

Robert Bussards improved electrostatic fusion reactor. It is 100,000 times better than standard electrodstatic fusion It needs 200 million to make a full scale reactor. Magnetized target fusion is another option that seems cheaper and simpler than tokomaks We should try some of the cheaper alternatives to tokomaks. 10-20% of the 12 billion tokomak budget for alternative fusion and fission power. Fission already works and we can make fission better for immediate major contributions to our energy problems. Current nuclear reactors can be made 50% more powerful by changing the shape of the nuclear fuel and adjusting the cooling water This would add 160GW to global power. Thorium fission reactors were made in the 1960's and would be better than our current uranium boiler reactors Thorium liquid flouride reactors do not produce transuranic 10,000 year waste and would not have weapon proliferation issues.

General Fusion

Similar to inertial confinement, but without all the expensive lasers and without said lasers using up huge amounts of power themselves making breakeven pretty tenuous.