Editor,Ā
We might want to tone down the enthusiasm over fusion. (Wednesday, Dec. 28 letters.) As the MIT Technology Review points out: āWhile within the reactor there was net energy gain, in reality producing that 3.15 megajoules took about 300 megajoules from the grid.ā
Also, fusion power plants arenāt particularly clean. Fusion emits neutrons that make the walls of the containment vessel radioactive. While itās a smaller problem than the wastes produced by fission, itās still a toxic waste that needs to be carefully managed.
Itās far too early to estimate the cost of electricity from fusion, but there is not yet a reason to believe that fusion will fulfill fissionās promise of ātoo cheap to meter.ā Fusion has been a technology that is always 20 years away. Now it is a technology that is just 20 years away.
Chuck Simmons
Redwood City
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(2) comments
Mr. Simmons ā I havenāt read the MIT article but thanks for providing a statistic on the net energy gain. Iām assuming you mean 3.15 (or 315) megajoules from 3.00 (or 300) megajoules else weāre nowhere close to a net gain. If we assume there is a gain, the question now is whether this experiment was able to be repeated independently. If not, Iāll await independent confirmation. Regardless, as youāve asserted, I wonāt count on seeing fusion anytime soon, unless I stare at the Sun. (Sarcasm, sort of, but please, never stare at the Sun). Happy New Year!
That man has duplicated the power of the sun in a reaction that generated more power out than in is no doubt the greatest scientific achievement of man kind. No one predicted this would come so soon because too many people neglect to consider that technology grows exponentially.
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