Technology
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
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Fusion reactors are incredibly complicated.... This is a research reactor, with the goal of figuring out how to create sustainable fusion for real world uses by 2050.
This is not a performative action for a determinative outcome, this is aspirational and has no guarantee of achieving its goals, which is good. This type of research and science needs to be funded, even when it may fail.
Maybe this will spurn competition between powers to accelerate their own fusion reactor research, and create a virtuous cycle that accelerates this technology becoming a major source of green energy in the near, or medium-term, future.
I like democracy, but I don't like our short-sighted (4-8 year) election-campaign-based governing. But between our public and private sectors I know we can meet this challenge and make this happen.
I disagree on the private sector aspect of this, but I agree on the democracy part. Although, I don't really view America as true democracy at this moment in history, but that's besides the point here.
Fusion technology is at a point in its life cycle where it needs to be a public sector project. There is no path to profitability in the near-term, that would justify private sector involvement, except as a means to extract profit from the very expensive research process of even making this technology feasible.
Not that I'm against the private sector within the nuclear power industry. I'm very excited to see what they can do with SMR technology. I'm just extremely skeptical of most private-public partnerships, especially in cases like this.
I would greatly prefer public sector development. I'm just being fatalistic about how our oligarchy conducts itself.
One way they conduct themselves is by using the politicians they've purchased to advocate for forming public-private partnerships, in areas where they shouldn't exist, which they can then legally siphon off the resources from.