For years now, nuclear fusion has been 50 years away from being a viable power source. But recent fundamental advances in engineering reactors mean that we are now only 30 years away. Some of the younger people reading this tweet may even live to see the number brought down to 20
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A serious effort on climate must include a huge spending program on fusion in the long term, and mass construction of fission plants in the short term. But Biden's proposed budget for nuclear research basically all goes to deferred maintenance. Those atoms won't split themselves!
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It's time we learned to love atomic energy again. Burying a little radioactive waste deep under Reno is much better than having to breathe wildfire smoke every summer on gondola rides through lower Manhattan.pic.twitter.com/hCoKJTl8lA
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It's scandalous that for all the talk of a climate crisis, the United States hasn't broken ground on a new nuclear power plant since the 1970's. The closest we've come is expanding an existing facility in Georgia.
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Same with photosynthesis, I think: an entire planet covered with solar converters more efficient than our best technology, some of it happening in our own backyards.
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Yeah! My yard in particular seems to convert nanometer wavelength photons to brambles with 90% efficiency.
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You're saying the lizard people are behind this, copy.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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Wait how are we then supposed to make powerplants out of that same process?
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Turns out that nuclear fusion energy isn't *that* related to how the sun works. It's sort of like claiming that nuclear reactors are powered by the same thing that lets radium dials glow. Technically true, but we're not building reactors by piling up watches.
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If the power density is that low, does that mean it's a bad idea to try to replicate that mechanism? Like maybe we should leave fusion to the sun because there's just not space for it on Earth?
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There's many things you can try to fuse together. The p-p fusion that heats the sun is so slow ("the average proton in the core of the sun waits 9 billion years before it successfully fuses with another proton") that it's not viable for power plants. But there are other pathways!
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