The Future of Fusion with ITER

The importance of Fusion for our future and an introduction to the ITER project

9 Comments on "The Future of Fusion with ITER"

Meld on Sun, 15th Dec 2013 7:08 pm 



Ah the cult of fusion, this reminded me of a Scientology video. Fusion scientist are a long long way below bin men in my hierarchy of useful jobs. Probably along side world leaders in terms of their utter uselessness

eastbay on Sun, 15th Dec 2013 7:14 pm 



Good Lord. Not this again.

BillT on Mon, 16th Dec 2013 1:06 am 



Desperation … Maybe the layoffs have started there?

DC on Mon, 16th Dec 2013 3:43 am 



Wow, even Iter calls Fusion ‘clean’ and ‘safe’.The clean claim is completely false and the ‘safe’ claim is problematic as well.

To ITERs credit though, they did not use the word ‘cheap’. I wonder why they left that one out? Mmmmmm…..

As for this video claims that fusion will fix all the problems they run down. If I were them, I would deeply embarrassed at making such claims. Think on for it even 2 mins and substitute the word ‘Fission’ for ‘Fusion’. Did fission ‘solve’ any of the problems they mention? Nope not a one. Some of them, fission actually made worse or at best, simply contributed to.

To expect fusion to deliver on even one of the claims this little blurb makes would be nothing short of a technological miracle.

mo on Mon, 16th Dec 2013 4:31 am 



Thats it! A little propaganda video I assume

SilentRunning on Mon, 16th Dec 2013 6:20 am 



Every time I see something that mentions population growth as something as a given I think *THAT’S THE PROBLEM!*

Why can’t we ever say “WE NEED TO STOP POPULATION GROWTH”???

Even if – by some miracle – a technological breakthrough made fusion reactors broadly available by next year – population growth would STILL overwhelm even that solution.

If we devoted 10% of the money spent on fusion research, we could stop population growth by the end of this decade. We could get to a sustainable negative population growth, where the human population declines to the point where the ecosystems might have a chance of recovery – and all of our global problems would be easier to fix

Bottom line – there is NO solution unless human numbers stop growing. Deaths have to equal or exceed births.

Take your pick how to do that: birth control, death camps or mass starvation. I vote “birth control”.

BillT on Mon, 16th Dec 2013 10:46 am 



Silent, it is going to be by war and probably before 2020. But even then, it will take over 250,000 deaths PER DAY for eternity, just to keep it at ~7 billion total.

To reduce the 7 billion to 3 1/2 billion would take 70 World War Twos.

Plus, huge resources are lost in every war, speeding up the extinction of home sapiens. We are a very prolific species and only Mother Nature can totally kill us off, or total nuclear destruction of the planet killing the ecosystem.

RichardfromUK on Mon, 16th Dec 2013 12:51 pm 



The former Astronaut, Lunar Module piolt Harrison Schmitt is a adovate for Fusion technology. There is a clip on youtube dating back ten years ago on his view.

But I don’t agree with making money out of the Moon for helium 3.

Siltenrunning is correct, population is a worldwide taboo on the subject of resource usage.

I’m twenty four, I don’t have a family of my own. And considering the threat ahead I may not ever have one. If I want to eat and shower twenty five years from now, I need resources. I can’t create life with somebody and then not think about my own selfish needs.

Something has to be sacrificied. I’m an atheist.

Take care everyone.

superkaos on Mon, 16th Dec 2013 4:48 pm 



Silent, in reality they do mean to stop population growth. Fusion technology will allow to build a working Death Star which would vaporize the planet, there you go, growth problem solved :-{