Fusion is still the energy of the future and likely to remain so, says Daniel Jassby. Again.
Jassby has the attention of Dr Woit because he used to work at the Princeton physics lab, whence the Ebrahimi-Alfven drive and, someday, fusion propulsion. The lab is a good 'un and has done much excellent work. Just not in sustainable fusion power, down here on Earth.
Jassby argues that magnetic confinement fusion is a dead end, looking mainly at ITER in France; and that fusion research should pretty-much scrap the whole idea. C.F. research can move on to inertial confinement, with lasers. This is (mainly) what's been in the news the past year. Jassby doesn't wetblanket "ICF" as such... but. He does see ICF as such an infant technology that it will take another generation to mature.
Unsure where beams come in, here.
Meanwhile ToughSF was last week pointing out that fusion reactions are still, like, radioactive and stuff. Neutrons, mainly; also tritium. So there will still be nuclear waste, and hazard.
TOKAMAK 7/25: Better magnets... for a dead tech. Maybe they can use that for something useful, like a fusion NERVA.
COLD 8/19: Well that didn't happen last year.
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