[cdn-nucl-l] Re: U.S. Should Rejoin Revised Fusion Energy Project

["Edward Oleen" <eoleen@earthlink.net>]

Yes, it is pronounced "eater", and that is exactly
what fusion power projects do - eat money. For the
cost of the "eater" project we could probably
design a whole new generation of fission power
plants, and get a couple of working power reactors
into the bargain.  I'd sooner see some of the
"eater" money going into high-temperature
high-power superconducting power transmission
systems, so we could (co)locate fission plants in
remote areas and avoid the political hassles as
exemplified by the furor over the Indian Point
power plants.

What is it - 3.5 decades we have spent
"researching" fusion power? And where have we
gotten? Damn near nowhere, is where.  Yes, we have
learned a lot about handling plasmas - and the
more we learn the more we learn there is to be
learned. I hate to say it guys, but I have this
horrible suspicion that the only form of
containment that works is gravitational - inertial
and magnetic seem to be will-o-the-wisps.

I'm an engineer - and a lazy one at that.  If it
can't produce gobs of power IN EXCESS OF THE
INPLANT POWER, I'm really not interested in it in
other than an intellectual way, and I can't see
that we are going to solve our oil-dependency
before we run out of oil with fusion.