/sci/ - Science & Math

>>8357049
We don't understand plasma. Plasma dynamics are a bitch.

>>8357049
Nuclear power is dead. All research hit dead ends.

>>8357060
No it's because we aren't funding fusion

Fusion research is very expensive and still at a relatively primitive stage.

ITER's current estimate is 20bn Euros, which is comparable to the most expensive nuclear power plants. And ITER won't actually generate power; you'd need something even bigger and more expensive (but we first need something ITER-scale to figure out how to make something bigger, and even whether it can actually work in practice).

The other major issue is that fusion generates faster neutrons than fission, which are harder to shield, do more damage to the reactor, and harder to extract energy from.

Even if fusion is technically feasible, it may turn out to be so only at scales which aren't economically feasible. Fission plants are so expensive that the major operating cost is the interest on the capital investment. Absent a major breakthrough, fusion plants look like being not only more expensive still, but will initially be a higher-risk investment, resulting in proportionally higher capital costs.

Stars ARE nuclear fusion planets. Once the external pressure exceeds the internal pressure of atoms, the planet collapses into a star. I think if you do the calculations right, if Jupiter was 10x more dense it would implode into a star.