[abefetterman]

Overall this is presenting a smaller university-class tokamak with advanced superconductors to try to reach Q>2 (scientific breakeven). One of the big advantages of higher fields is that the fusion power goes like B^4. I think this is an interesting idea, but it's hard to imagine the US funding something like this at the same time as ITER. Last year's talk [1] suggests "alternative funding," pointing to other private fusion research, which I am dubious of. There is a mindset that "if these bad ideas get funded, our good idea should get funded more," which we know is not how funding works.

As a former researcher of alternative magnetic confinement schemes, I'm disappointed the latest research in FRCs and mirrors didn't make it into this talk. Viewers should take into account that this, like most talks, is pushing an agenda, in this case a new device called SPARC. It appears to also be a way of using the incredibly talented tokamak researchers at MIT now that Alcator C-Mod is not operating.

[1] http://library.psfc.mit.edu/catalog/online_pubs/iap/iap2016/...

[tambourine_man]

>Viewers should take into account that this, like most talks, is pushing an agenda

Exactly, and it annoyed me a bit the somewhat dismissive tone he applies to the competing ideas. He starts by trying to show an impartial overview while being anything but.

[dwaltrip]

To be fair, his dismissal was consistent in focusing on the most important metric, Q (energy out / energy in).

However, I'm not qualified to assess anything else in the video, and I do recognize the potential for bias here.

[QAPereo]

Any breakthroughs on the horizon to tackle the issues of the containment vessel being battered, and the plasma diverter?

[abefetterman]

The most interesting thing for these is liquid lithium metal--especially a great solution on diverter. For the wall neutron flux this is unfortunately seen as a "materials issue" (someone else's problem). It is a bit stalled out until we can build something with high enough neutron flux for testing.

[noobermin]

But he's from MIT so he must know what he's talking about.

Remember kids--and by kids, I mean fellow scientists--every presentation serves to either help secure or maintain funding.

[mozumder]

> Remember kids--and by kids, I mean fellow scientists--every presentation serves to either help secure or maintain funding.

What's the point of this statement? Funding is how things happen - these things don't happen out of thin air.

"Remember kids--and by kids, I mean fellow scientists--every presentation serves to either help doing or maintain doing."