Fusion power is certainly worth pursuing. Nothing we have learned has shown that it is impossible, or even inherently unsuitable for commercial exploitation. Nothing we learned about fission power showed it was inherently unsuitable for commercial exploitation. Yet the political, social, and environmental factors outside of actual engineering considerations have had a profound effect on the actual implementation of this proven and reliable technology.
Fusion power has all those hurdles ahead of it, after a demonstration of reliable energy production facility able to compete with fossil fuel technology. And that first facility will be a very expensive investment, with a very long term payback slope.
Just being worth pursuing is not really much of a factor. Superconductivity, Virology, Genetics, Optics, Nanotechnology, and a host of other areas of research are all worth pursuing. And all of them are very expensive. In a time of unprecedented worldwide concern about government solvency, and corporate risk assessment all of those fields are fighting for a shrinking pool of money.
Fusion power and even Solar and Wind power all compete for money, and so far, the money is staying with fossil fuels, because it has been there for a very long time, and been profitable throughout that time. That is a hard bottom line to beat.
The problem is there is no indication about how to build a fusion reactor that would be within an order of magnitude of being cost competitive with fission reactors. Using breeder reactors we have enough Uranium and Thorium to provide our needs for 1000 years.
Radiation from fusion on the sun will continue at about it’s present rate for a few billion more years. Most life forms on earth have evolved to naturally harvest that energy, both directly and indirectly. Modern technology is able to harvest that energy and store it. But it isn’t as convenient as fossil and nuclear fuels. Nor is it as subject to being centralized for profit motives.
Energy on earth comes from sun fusion, gravity (tides), radioactive decay and chemical reactions. We know how to use the two most abundant, it just isn’t as profitable. If we make it profitable, it will happen.
Precisely. In other words, we already have an incredibly powerful, predictable, stable, safe, and practically inexhaustible fusion reactor blasting its energy down on earth every day. Research in fields like synthetic photosynthesis and other means of harnessing the sun’s energy seem very encouraging already. It’ll still take time for the technology to mature and the world to adjust, but when the benefits of making solar power efficient, affordable, accessible, and profitable, then the world will naturally trend that way.
Another thing that makes it the best alternative, is that it’s non-localized. The sun is one energy source that can be tapped from practically anywhere on earth.
For general power consumption, how can we ignore such an obvious, blinding source of energy as we move further into the 21st century?