# Fusion Power Generation Solution **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 31, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764 "2013-05-31T02:23:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/1 "2013-05-31T02:23:06Z")
-Deploy or locate fusion reactor 149 597 871 kilometers from receiving source. -Deploy photovoltaic generators to gather the energy. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/2 "2013-05-31T02:39:14Z")
Somebody beat you to it. I bet you could patent the idea anyway, though. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/3 "2013-05-31T11:36:08Z")
Seems incredibly inefficient. You’d lose a HUGE amount of energy into space. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/4 "2013-05-31T13:55:03Z")
I am amazed that no one has thought of this before. Way to go, Compy. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/5 "2013-05-31T14:43:33Z")
Wilbur, Orville - it’ll never work. A vacuum chamber that large is beyond expensive. That’s probably all the steel output of the entire world for decades. The RF power generators are also a show stopper. Nope, not possible. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/6 "2013-05-31T14:53:13Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Seems incredibly inefficient. You’d lose a HUGE amount of energy into space. Easily dealt with. Just use a ridiculously oversized fusion reactor. An advantage to this approach is that if you scale a fusion reactor up enough, you can let gravitational forces do all the work for your containment field instead of messing about with power-hungry magnetic fields and such. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/7 "2013-05-31T15:40:15Z")
That’d never work. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/8 "2013-05-31T16:23:25Z")
Energy density (in terms of land area) is not particularly high compared to alternatives. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/9 "2013-05-31T16:26:42Z")
What about the safety of the populace? Perhaps we could deploy a combination of High frequency RF absorbent layer of material and magnetic shielding to deflect ionized particles. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/10 "2013-05-31T17:18:15Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > magnetic shielding to deflect ionized particles. This one is going to be a problem - you do know you have to flip the iron core every 500,000 years to keep it in balance, so what are you going to do for a magnetic shield while you’re reversing the polarity? It’s not instantaneous, you know. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/11 "2013-05-31T17:28:06Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Easily dealt with. Just use a ridiculously oversized fusion reactor. An advantage to this approach is that if you scale a fusion reactor up enough, you can let gravitational forces do all the work for your containment field instead of messing about with power-hungry magnetic fields and such. Yeah, it’s all right being devil-may-care about irreplaceable resources for now, but you’ll be laughing on the other side ten billion years hence when you’ve wasted all your hydrogen. With proper management it could have lasted a trillion times longer! Did we learn no lessons from the fossil-fuel era? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/12 "2013-05-31T17:34:08Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Yeah, it’s all right being devil-may-care about irreplaceable resources for now, but you’ll be laughing on the other side ten billion years hence when you’ve wasted all your hydrogen. Eh, the hydrogen will all be helium then, and we’ll all be talking so funny we won’t care ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/13 "2013-05-31T18:20:47Z")
The cost of this would be astronomical! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/14 "2013-05-31T19:17:11Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > The cost of this would be astronomical! Nah. Pro-rated out over the life of the reactor it would be quite manageable. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/15 "2013-06-01T16:21:42Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Seems incredibly inefficient. You’d lose a HUGE amount of energy into space. In the short run, yes. But in the long run the theoretical panel area is up to 4_pi_(149 597 871 kilometers)[sup]2[/sup]. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/16 "2013-06-01T16:51:50Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Easily dealt with. Just use a ridiculously oversized fusion reactor. An advantage to this approach is that if you scale a fusion reactor up enough, you can let gravitational forces do all the work for your containment field instead of messing about with power-hungry magnetic fields and such. Have you considered the liabilities? An unshielded fusion reactor of that size, even so far away, would certainly inflict first- to second-degree burns on any person with prolonged exposure, with possible long-term complications such as cancer. Power fluctuations in the reactor itself could wreak havoc with delicate electronics and possibly even affect large scale weather systems. Not to mention environmental effects such as migratory birds and insects, the effect on agriculture, heck even tidal changes from the gravitational forces alone. You’d never get the EPA to approve such a hairbrained idea. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/17 "2013-06-01T19:00:41Z")
And who would insure it? ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/18 "2013-06-01T20:39:03Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Have you considered the liabilities? An unshielded fusion reactor of that size, even so far away, would certainly inflict first- to second-degree burns on any person with prolonged exposure, with possible long-term complications such as cancer. Power fluctuations in the reactor itself could wreak havoc with delicate electronics and possibly even affect large scale weather systems. Not to mention environmental effects such as migratory birds and insects, the effect on agriculture, heck even tidal changes from the gravitational forces alone. > > You’d never get the EPA to approve such a hairbrained idea. This sort of scare-mongering makes me sick! Sure there’d be some minor hazards, but the benefits would so vastly outweigh them as to make them truly irrelevant. If we allowed such rampant NIMBYism to dictate public policy we may as well be living on a frozen, lifeless hunk of rock. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fusion-power-generation-solution/659764/19 "2013-06-01T22:34:56Z")
If something like this was workable, you’d see thousands of the buggers wherever you looked.