How Close Are We, Really, To Nuclear Fusion?

StartsWithABang writes: The ultimate dream when it comes to clean, green, safe, abundant energy is nuclear fusion. The same process that powers the core of the Sun could also power everything on Earth millions of times over, if only we could figure out how to reach that breakeven point. Right now, we have three different candidates for doing so: inertial confinement, magnetic confinement, and magnetized target fusion. Recent advances have all three looking promising in various ways, making one wonder why we don't spend more resources towards achieving the holy grail of energy.

Comments

Re:Furthermore, Saudi Arabia must be destroyed

[maeka]

Besides my own personal interest in fusion, what really excites me, is the chance to finally destroy Saudi Arabia

Don't worry. With sub $40 oil Saudi Arabia has far less than 5 years of cash left. OPEC is gone, US frackers keep cutting production cost quickly moving shale oil from mid-price to low-price, and so the chance of seeing 60 oil (S.A.'s break-even point at the current level of government spending) before 2020 is slim slim slim.

It's not that S.A. can't produce oil and make money at $40, it's that they can't maintain their stability spending at $40. Love them or hate them, they are a stabilizing force in the region. With them gone or impotent the region is going to change, fast.
 

Re:Mission accomplished

[kilodelta]

You do realize that there are proposal to build an orbital solar capture satellite. It'd be very cool to do that by the way.