Don’t let the sun set on fusion

President Obama has touted federal investment in energy technology as a smart and environmentally friendly way to create jobs.

When it comes to fusion research, however — which could deliver boundless clean energy, if the scientists get it right — Obama is basically shipping jobs overseas.

His budget for 2013 chops federal funding for American fusion labs, including projects at New York’s own Columbia University, then redirects that cash to pay the U.S. share of an international megaproject under construction in France.

No matter how you slice it — economically, scientifically or politically — robbing Peter to pay Pierre makes little sense.

To be fair, Obama is keeping a promise made by President George W. Bush, who committed support for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor a decade ago — along with Europe, China, Russia, India, Japan and South Korea.

Since ITER stands to be
the largest fusion experiment the world has ever known — and just might solve humanity’s energy dilemma — the U.S. can’t afford not to take part.

But gutting homegrown research to pay the tab is a big mistake. Already, universities across the country are shutting down experiments, firing researchers and turning away would-be graduate students. That is decimating the next generation of American fusion scientists.

The very real danger is that — when and if the ITER investment pays off as hoped — the U.S. will lack the equipment and know-how to take advantage of breakthroughs.

The issue hits home for me because my son, who’s about to enroll in graduate school, was planning a career in fusion research. And Obama’s budget cuts are forcing him — and hundreds of budding physicists just like him — to think again.

My son focused on fusion because of its enormous potential to generate a virtually limitless supply of carbon-free energy — a key to solving global warming.

The flip side of nuclear fission, fusion generates energy by smashing atoms together instead of splitting them apart. It’s what powers the sun and stars — the true solar energy. And the fuel can be extracted from ordinary water, with your typical 20-ounce Poland Spring bottle packing roughly the punch of a barrel of oil.

The big difficulty is creating the enormous heat and pressure necessary for fusion to take place, and doing it efficiently enough to have more energy come out than what goes in.

These are the challenges my son had looked forward to tackling, only to find that universities are scaling back fusion programs for lack of money.

“We’ve laid off research staff,” Columbia applied physics Prof. Michael Mauel told me. “Award-winning scientists, we’ve had to terminate. And we’ve reduced the number of graduate students we have in our program already.”

Mauel strongly supports the ITER project but agonizes over the fallout for domestic research. As he put it: “We’re beginning to slash the infrastructure in this country that’s needed to take advantage of the knowledge we gain from that experiment.”

Obama should know that the Chinese are not making the same mistake. A pair of Chinese physicists recently visited Columbia to learn more about one of Mauel’s experiments, which they intend to duplicate. Mauel had to tell them that his own experiment was canceled last year.

One of the visitors came from a university with 30 professors specializing in fusion-related physics. Columbia, one of America’s top fusion research centers, has just five.

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faces the prospect of shutting down a major fusion reactor because it’s losing $24 million a year in financing from the U.S. Energy Department.

And the crunch will only get worse. The department’s fusion research budget is roughly $400 million and shrinking while the U.S. share of ITER construction costs is $150 million and growing.

Both amounts are a mere rounding error in a federal budget of almost $4 trillion.

The stakes are huge. As Obama said in a speech last year:

“Other countries are exporting technology we pioneered — and chasing the jobs that come with it — because they know that the countries that lead the 21st century clean energy economy will be the countries that lead the 21st century global economy.”

So far, though, that’s translating into big bucks for solar panels and windfarms, and nickels and dimes for fusion.

Put your money where your mouth is, Mr. President.

22 Comments on "Don’t let the sun set on fusion"

dsula on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 12:35 pm 



>> a key to solving global warming.

It is so much simpler, and easier, and cheaper. Reduce population.

BillT on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 1:17 pm 



dsula, are you volunteering to be first? Go for it! The other 7 billion might object…or didn’t you think about that?
If no one was born for the next 20 years, there would still be about 6 billion of us hanging around consuming everything.

“…The big difficulty is creating the enormous heat and pressure necessary …” Yep! That’s a huge problem…

“… with your typical 20-ounce Poland Spring bottle packing roughly the punch of a barrel of oil…” Yep! And the ocean contains more gold than has ever been mined, but that does not mean it is possible to get it.

Fusion is a joke. Another ….what if? ….and maybe? that will never prove out but give a few hundred professors a nice income for life. If it was possible, it would have been done already. There are still too many expensive hurdles to get over and too little time.

MIT has a $10+ billion dollar endowment. Let them spend some of that if the program is so important. NOT my tax money! At a $24 million per year loss, it could be funded for 400+ years and still have money left in the trust.

sunweb on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 1:31 pm 



As for fusion, it has been ten years away – for decades. The best place for fusion is on the sun and the best way to use it is photosynthesis and passive solar. In other words, the sun provides energy through plant foods, animal foods, animal power, wood, some biomass, windmills (non electric) and well-designed structures.

It is clear to me sustainability is a living process and a process of living. Nuclear does not fit this process.
More from: http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2012/04/nuclear-power.html

Beery on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 3:06 pm 



There’s a reason fusion only occurs on a massive scale in nature – the pressures necessary are immense. If the smallest star is many times the size of our Earth, I think nuclear fusion on a human scale will either prove impossible or or hugely dangerous. I personally think it is a technological dead end – a money pit.

Arthur on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 3:19 pm 



Yeah dsula, the experience from Bagdad, US campusses or Norwegian holiday camps teaches us that anything up to 70 or so is doable for a motivated individual before you end up in jail for life (or a harem in heaven with 70 virgins if you happen to be a muslim).

Arthur on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 3:26 pm 



I am not sure if fusion is a joke, but it is a very big if at best. And indeed, the scientists running the show and making the promisses are merely advocates of their own cause. My hopes are on windenergy and ever cheaper photovoltaics (33% in 2011 alone), as well as desert solar [*] to keep at least the electric grid going, which is from the top of my head some 10% of the entire current energy spectrum. Forget about mass transportation of people and goods.

[*] http://www.warum-smartgrid.de/blog/uploads/2010/04/F14A8AD1-0380-4139-98F8-A31EE7AA82B8Picture11.jpg

Bob Owens on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 3:40 pm 



We simply don’t need fusion. If we had spent all the fusion money for the last 50 years on solar water heaters we would now have every home and business in America creating its own hot water without any fuel. The payoff would have been clear, direct and easy to obtain. Instead we dump $$$s into a dream. Wake up America! Stop being stupid.

SOS on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 3:48 pm 



Technology always provides giving the human race what it needs when it needs it. Fusion is a work in progress and along with Solar, wind etc are all over the top expensive. Far more so than even fossil costs under the current environment that is restricting and out right blocking orderly development of these valuable resources.

You see technology has provided once again. What was once true is now false. The paradigm has changed. Fossil fuels, because of enhanced drilling technologies, are becoming abundent and plentiful. Unfortunately politics is trying its best to perpetuate what has become the flat earth belief that we are “running out of oil”.

LOL we have so much oil and gas if it were developed properly, in and orderly fashion, we would have all the energy we need for at least 100 years, we would pay of the national debt, fund social security and balance the budget until the fusion reactor came along, cold fusion hit the markets in a big way or solar and wind suddenly became practical and affordable.

Please dont be a flat earther. Keep your dreams alive but dont ignore the reality of what is happening. All your alternative ideas can be funded for the future if the wealth of our abundant oil/gas reserves is harvested for the betterment of mankind in the present.

Plantagenet on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 5:49 pm 



Obama is anti-science. He’s cut NASA twice. Then he cut JPL. Now he’s cutting fusion research. But when it comes to bailouts for Obama’s political cronies on Wall Street and in the UAW, the money doors swing wide open!

kervennic on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 6:10 pm 



Fusion with the russian design tokamak is a stack of bullshit.
It is impossible to have it run on the long term because of meterials issue.
You do not hold up the energy of the sun in a solid box.
We are running up of material as much as we are running out of oil, this last desperate effort is ridiculous.

There might be a way to get fusion, understanding better energy properties of atoms on very short time scale, that is going beyond the statistical dogma of quantum mechanicss, this is the smart way, but this will require one century of research in fundamental physics and to wait for the current generation of physicist to return to dust.
For the moment they are trying to suck up more money to fuel their primitive absurd designs and sustain hope among the workers crowd that we wil find a trick to maintain jobs.

Kenjamkov on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 6:59 pm 



If you have a magic box for everyone that gives unlimited energy but heats the air around it one degree hotter, the World will be a furnace before too long.

dissident on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 7:09 pm 



Yeah, sure. Millionaire fusion researchers. Don’t make me laugh. None of them are making the high salaries of doctors of lawyers. The money goes straight into the private sector for equipment. So if you think it is all one big racket then so is the whole US Department of Defense.

The Luddite philosophy of life won’t save anyone.

DC on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 7:12 pm 



Fusion, if it ever happens that is, will neither be boundless, nor will it be ‘clean’. In reality, it would be so hideously expensive, and take so long to built, wed be lucky if even a few got built.

So much for boundless.

As for clean, no. Fusion will not be ‘clean’ by any stretch, only less dirty than fission. A 10,000 waste management problem may be better than a 100,000 year waste management.

Not Clean. At best slightly less Dirty.

DC on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 7:13 pm 



Fusion, if it ever happens that is, will neither be boundless, nor will it be ‘clean’. In reality, it would be so hideously expensive, and take so long to built, wed be lucky if even a few got built.

So much for boundless.

As for clean, no. Fusion will not be ‘clean’ by any stretch, only less dirty than fission. A 10,000 year waste management problem may be better than a 100,000 year waste management, barely.

Not Clean. At best slightly less Dirty.

DC on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 7:14 pm 



Bah, sorry browser went off rails.

Rick on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 8:37 pm 



Fusion is a joke. Once again this admin and all of them have never had a real NRG policy. Peak Oil should reduce the world population, in the years to come.

Mike on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 9:38 pm 



SOS is on the cool aid again.

Norm on Tue, 3rd Apr 2012 9:49 pm 



I GOT SUMTHIN TO SAY. Read this website article, because it has very good insights about Fusion developments:
http://www.nae.edu/Publications/Bridge/CompetitiveMaterialsandSolutions/MaterialsChallengesforFusionEnergy.aspx

In particular it talks about the materials science improvements, which are necessary to make it work.

Unlike all of you fine folks, I wont say ‘Fusion big scam’ or ‘Fusion the answer’ but it does seem like at least some effort should continue to be made.

The biggest problem is, what if the Fusion finally works ? Give today’s society an infinite unlimited cheap energy, soon the entire earth will look like one big Costco outlet, with asphalt parking. People too reckless and crazy to have unlimited energy. Seems like if we just run out of energy, that might be the best for the environment.

But to cancel fusion research seems short sighted, because with the article link I gave out, clearly there is ongoing progress.

BillT on Wed, 4th Apr 2012 2:14 am 



Norm…the odds are extremely against this ever succeeding. And a waste of what resources we have left. As said above. If the money poured into this rat hole was spent on solar water heaters, the energy saved would be more than one of these “maybes” would ever make and be simple mechanics. If it is so important let MIT fund it. Not my tax money!

Norm on Wed, 4th Apr 2012 3:25 am 



Hello Bill T,

Oh, OK. Thx for the glooming. You are right, all fusion research should be shut down, 100%, dont ever try a thing with it again.

Also, never mind that link I posted. Its obviously irrelevant,and the author who wrote it doesnt know anything. In fact, that particular author is a real dummy that doesnt even know a nut from a bolt.

ingeborgsjon on Wed, 4th Apr 2012 5:38 am 



BillT: Lower birth rates is the only humane way to reduce population, if you don’t see this as an option eventually nature will take it’s toll. That could mean the worst humanitarian disaster ever recorded. If will take decades but it will be better than the path we are going right now, 9-10 billion by 2050 is unsustainable.

DC on Wed, 4th Apr 2012 6:43 am 



You know Norm, you can lose sarcasm ok? Some things, at the end of the day, are just not worth pursueing ok? Fusion is definately up there. And its not even strictly because it ‘wont work’ It may well in fact, turn out to be possible. What it wont be though, is affordable, or stable, or reliable. It will be TOO expensive for us to consider. Too expensive in terms of rare and exotic materials, In money, in man-hours, in highly educated specialists. In every sense of the word, we literally wont be able to afford fusion. We could impoverish outselves beyond all reason decades from now if it turned out to be possible, but who would agree to that?

TPTB are pushing all sorts of non-solutions, many border on scams and hoaxes. The Bio-fools Scam, the hydrogen hoax. None of the produce new energy, NONE. In hydrogens case, it will actually accelerate energy depletion. So youll forgive those of us when we say, I dont think its going to happen. Thats all. No doubt well learn some interesting and possibly useful things if we keep plugging away at it for as long as we can. That does not mean it will become a practical solution …to anything.

Besides, we dont ‘need’ fusion. We have an energy consumption problem, not so much an energy generation problem. Perfect fusion and in a few geneations, the wate heat from a fusion economy would boil the planet and strip it of every single last resource while it was doing it.