Here are some critics of the alternative fusion concepts from a tokamack expert.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/01/detail ... -work.html
Its seems that that how was regarded during 1950-70 always must be useless.
Critique of small fusion projects.
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TheRadicalModerate
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Interesting thread. However, it would be nice for somebody to disentangle the interesting science from the aspects that make for good policy. It seems like there has been a recent acceleration in the production of interesting results in magnetically confined plasmas, and it's certainly possible that some insight will be forthcoming that will change MCF economics vastly for the better. But I can't help but think that this is still a lot like the drunk who's looking for his car keys under the street lamp because the light is better there.
It still seems better from a policy standpoint to slightly de-emphasize MCF in order to fund some of the long shots. Maybe it's not as likely that the key insight(s) will come from the alternative approaches, but the smallish amount of money needed to nourish some of these projects seems to make for a much better risk-to-reward profile.
In short: The same old complaints we've been making here for years. We're still missing the secret sauce that gets the alt fusion guys to admit that MCF/tokamak is something other than a complete dry hole, while at the same time getting the MCF guys to take some of the alt concepts seriously. Until somebody can articulate some form of policy that lets both not only coexist but actually cooperate, cursing the darkness is going to seem like a better policy option than reaching for the friggin' candles.
It still seems better from a policy standpoint to slightly de-emphasize MCF in order to fund some of the long shots. Maybe it's not as likely that the key insight(s) will come from the alternative approaches, but the smallish amount of money needed to nourish some of these projects seems to make for a much better risk-to-reward profile.
In short: The same old complaints we've been making here for years. We're still missing the secret sauce that gets the alt fusion guys to admit that MCF/tokamak is something other than a complete dry hole, while at the same time getting the MCF guys to take some of the alt concepts seriously. Until somebody can articulate some form of policy that lets both not only coexist but actually cooperate, cursing the darkness is going to seem like a better policy option than reaching for the friggin' candles.