The Stellarator design has proven to be stable and to produce net positive energy. We are actually only $20B away from having a fully functional nuclear fusion reactor.
Fun fact: I was skeptical of your claim that this has been proven, so I googled “stellerator proven net positive” and this very comment was the first result
Not really, unfortunately. The progress has been heartening, don't get me wrong, but it's more like $20B away from getting to the first steps of solving the next set of problems on the road to a fully functional fusion generator.
Those are fairly substantial. It's past time to stop being cynical about "ten more years every ten years", but it's also way too soon to declare victory.
And ultimately, fusion doesn't solve the hardest problem with energy today which is cost.
Solar already provides unlimited clean energy, and it took decades of development for the cost to drop to a competitive rate.
Even if we had a functioning fusion plant tomorrow, it will likely cost WAY more per kWh and require decades of iteration and improvement to become economically feasible.
QuadmasterXLII|1 year ago
samatman|1 year ago
Those are fairly substantial. It's past time to stop being cynical about "ten more years every ten years", but it's also way too soon to declare victory.
mjamesaustin|1 year ago
Solar already provides unlimited clean energy, and it took decades of development for the cost to drop to a competitive rate.
Even if we had a functioning fusion plant tomorrow, it will likely cost WAY more per kWh and require decades of iteration and improvement to become economically feasible.