On Apr 28, 2013, at 5:55 AM, Eric Walker <[email protected]> wrote:
> Perhaps it is reasonable to call this kind of fusion clean in relation to > fission, but the label makes it easy to lose sight of the fact that it is not > all that clean. > Hot Fusion (if it is even possible in practice, it is very possibly just a pipe dream) is only cleaner than light water fission reactors. It is not cleaner than thorium fission nukes or other 4th gen nukes. In fact the production of radioactive waste in 4th gen fission plants could be negative, because they can burn also fission waste from light water reactors. Too bad, that advanced fission is very well explored and it is not economically feasible and as electricity generation cost is getting down due to renewables, it will be even less feasible in the future. However Fusion is even less economical than 4th gen fission. There is just no room in the near future grid for nuclear power. Too bad for the nukes that battery technology and solar panels are getting exponentially cheaper, because there are no moving parts. By 2017–2020 electric vehicles are cheaper than ICE vehicles. By 2017–2020 utility solar power is cheaper than coal power. By 2013 rooftop solar (with 100 % on-site electricity consumption) is cheaper than grid electricity. —Jouni
