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New Advances Bring Fusion Closer to Reality
An anonymous reader writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports on new advances in nuclear fusion research. For years we've been waiting for the technical breakthroughs that would make cost-effective fusion energy a reality. Are we getting close, or are the problems insurmountable?"
IhateSCOmodmeup
Scientists, meanwhile, are chafing to loose the bulldozers.
If they loose the bulldozers, how will they ever find them to finish the fusion research?
I'm sorry, we're looking at a theological magazine for technical articles?
"Stumble before you crawl"
Why would anyone think fusion will be 'clean'? What will happen to the material that stops all those neutrons? What is the failure mode for a collapsed fusuion capable magnetic field?
It's not good!
How about intertial confinment failures?
Wow, these are bad, very very very bad also.
Please stop waiting for fusion power to be our friend.
Current nuclear reactors have a GREAT track record, by any other industry standard. However, those who worked on the years of clean up at three mile island know how bad these failure modes are.
Fusuion power will NEVER be safe, and, consequently never cheap.
Try going back to the 50's and early 60's and look at the literature/propaganda being put forth to get approval for current nuclear power plants. The promises were "Cheap", "Abundant", "Clean". The folks that came to our little burg for a 'rah rah' meeting claimed that power would be so cheap, it wouldn't be metered. There would be so much power we could never use it all and would only have to pay a yearly subscription.
The situation with nuclear power has not changed just becuase we are looking at 'new and improved' fusion.
Sorry.
Atheism is as much a belief system as any other religion. Just as there's no way to conclusively prove the existence of God, so there's no way to conclusively disprove it - an atheist is essentially making a leap of faith in decided that there is no God.
Secularism is, or should be, different. A secular government is effectively stating that religion is irrelevant to its duties - its citizens may be Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Satanist or whatever they please, and the government will give them the same rights and protection as anyone else.
There's a huge gap between theory and practice though, as evidenced by the recent moves in France to ban students from wearing any religious items. THAT is a variety of atheism - declaring that someone's beliefs will not be respected in government sponsored institutions because it suits the government of the day.