Quote:
Originally Posted by DGthe3
Fusion is better than fission, in both the physical and in the metaphysical -why destroy when you can create (perhaps this is proof that good is superior over evil . . . whoa I went waaaaaay to deep there, moving on). Fusion is just 25 years away now. They said that 25 years ago though. Possibly 25 years before that as well. But there are prototype reactors that exist now, which couldn't be said in the 80's. The problem is that no material known to man can withstand the temperatures generated by nuclear fusion. The challenge is to literally contain a star after all. But once it works and gives a net electrical output, I think the worlds energy problems will be solved.
In the mean time, microwave plants might be a better option. Send giant solar pannels into orbit and then beam the energy down to earth. This is much easier than contained a fusion reaction. Japan is going to launch a proof of concept in the near future. There are 2 chalenges with this. 1) making it cost effective to get the solar panels up there. 2) making sure that the mirco wave beam doesn't become humanity's first death ray. These can both be tackled in the forseable future.
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Yeah microwave technology is cool, I'm just not sold on the efficiency of solar panels and the transfer of microwaves and then the possible effects it has on the environment (think about birds and stuff flying through those microwave beams, dude haha), at least thats how I understand it works? To me the end all solution is fusion, its much cleaner than anything we got and produces exponentially more power than anything we got as well. I remember reading things of how electromagnets were being used to try to contain the reactions (which were lasting something like 10 seconds?) instead of finding actual materials to withstand the heat, since a magnetic force can push everything far enough away to make the materials we do have able to withstand the heat, and that they were coming quite close, in scientific terms, to getting it to work. I would love to be working on stuff like that, I just can't go to school for that long.... bleh. Anyways, people vote for fusion, it worked in SimCity2000 and it can work for us too?!