Fusion research and PR spin

[NNadir]

7. She did not say "it will never work." What she said...

...is that it is very far from practicality as a power plant.

I've been attending PPPL (Princeton Plasma Physics Lab) lectures for many years, well over a decade, in the Science on Saturday series, which in most years features two or three talks by PPPL scientists or Princeton Physicists on the possibility of fusion energy.

Thus I understand completely what she is saying, and agree with her comments about where we are. I also agree that the research is a worthy enterprise, but we are a long way, a very long way, from a practical power plant connected to the grid.

We already have practical fission devices, which are cleaner and more sustainable than any other form of currently available energy.

Fusion energy will not be available in any time frame to address climate change. Fission is available and has been, without a doubt, the most powerful tool in use in reducing the rising intensity of climatic destruction. It has not been allowed to arrest climatic destruction because of appeals to fear and ignorance similar to the appeals to fear and ignorance that has prevented the elimination of Covid-19.