Hi All

Finally a timetable for deployment of fusion reactors - according to a New Scientist write up the fusion effort is being "fast-tracked". In fusion-speak that means we get ITER and a materials-test-facility by 2015, then a demo reactor by 2031, and a full power-plant by 2048.

So instead of being "20 years away" it's 43 years and counting.

That's a shit-load of waiting around for the dubious prospect of 10 gigawatt power-plants and neutron-activated reactor-walls to be dumped every couple of decades. However it's roughly when we'll be needing it to keep up with energy demand. I'm hoping once they've figured out the damned things that smaller facilities will be feasible. Portable fusors on ships providing desalination as a waste-heat by-product are going to be "hot" property as ground-water dries up world-wide.

Adam