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Editor,
We might want to tone down the enthusiasm over fusion. (Wednesday, Dec. 28 letters.) As the MIT Technology Review points out: “While within the reactor there was net energy gain, in reality producing that 3.15 megajoules took about 300 megajoules from the grid.”
Also, fusion power plants aren’t particularly clean. Fusion emits neutrons that make the walls of the containment vessel radioactive. While it’s a smaller problem than the wastes produced by fission, it’s still a toxic waste that needs to be carefully managed.
It’s far too early to estimate the cost of electricity from fusion, but there is not yet a reason to believe that fusion will fulfill fission’s promise of “too cheap to meter.” 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
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.
Mr. Simmons – I haven’t read the MIT article but thanks for providing a statistic on the net energy gain. I’m assuming you mean 3.15 (or 315) megajoules from 3.00 (or 300) megajoules else we’re 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, I’ll await independent confirmation. Regardless, as you’ve asserted, I won’t 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!
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