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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Every day the sun mocks us with rays of free, almost limitless power derived from a process that our best minds can't copy down here on earth despite having oceans full of fuel. Having to capture that power with solar panels is almost a slap in the face.
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My favorite solar factoid is that the Sun's core, where nuclear fusion takes place, has the same power density as reptile metabolism. Just a big ball of gator meat up there in the sky, mocking our inability to fuse atoms, giving us freckles.
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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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Replying to @Pinboard
Any serious effort on climate change should entirely ignore fission. It's not remotely cost competitive with solar or wind now, even if you add the cost of battery storage. Plus, the safety concerns from both meltdowns and waste. Just wasteful boon doggies at this point.
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Replying to @existensil
What safety concerns? Japan, Germany, and France all do fine, as do our aging plants. Solar is great if you can show how to increase production of solar panels by orders of magnitude, and how to store all that power.
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Replying to @Pinboard
Japan does fine. Lol. Scaling solar is pretty simple: you print and install a shitload of them. Much cheaper than nuclear. Grid scale battery systems are becoming common place and it turns out we need a lot less of them than we thought. Alternatives like pumped hydro also.
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Hard to argue with "make more" as a way to solve the scaling problem. But if you engage with it more seriously, you'll see the issue.
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