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Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Scientists have done some amazing things but not all of them have practical application, at least yet. Fusion is a great example.

Live Science reports the World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion Reactor is Finally Completed.

Impressive But …

Assuming the reactor originally scheduled for 2020 is finally operable by 2039, I will be impressed.

Heck, I am impressed at what we have already scientifically achieved. But I wonder what is the practical application of this.

Question and Answer on Temperatures

How a reactor could produce temperatures of 27 million degrees without the operation melting is likely a puzzle to anyone who has been thinking clearly.

The article provides an answer. But what is the cost and how long can the reaction be sustained without a meltdown? Are there any other issues?

For those questions, let’s turn to a 2022 article. also from Live Science.

A Step Closer to a New Source of Power

Please consider A Step Closer to a New Source of Power

Questions Beget Questions

These are amazing achievements. But we must do much better than sustain a reaction for a world-breaking 100 trillionths of a second.

Something in this story is missing, like why does it take at least 15 years to do a test of something that is already built?

Also, the proposed process seems so much like a perpetual motion machine.

The reactor will use fusion to produce the deuterium-tritium that it needs to produce the fusion and also the energy to cryogenically cool the magnets the system needs to protect itself from itself, otherwise the whole thing melts down at 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

It that’s not the basic proposal, then someone please explain the proposal to me. If that is the proposal, additional questions surface.

Assuming the theory works to perfection, how long can the process be sustained? How much of the energy produced is needed to protect the system from the heat produced?

Tests of ITER were scheduled for 2020 but have been rescheduled for 2039 with no explanation why.

However, I am pleased to report we have made progress on target dates. By that I mean targets that forever always seemed just a few years away are now a more reasonable 15 years minimum away, and that’s only for a test.

Fusion will not save the planet anytime soon, if ever.

A Rebuttal

One person commented that I don’t understanding how science works. False. I know full well how science works.

Do I expect useful ideas out of this whether or not it solves our alleged existential threat?

Yes I do. But that has little to do with the point I was making.

We have a test in 2039 and alleged existential threat underway that supposedly is too late to fix by 2050.

Today, we have practical, believable, information that fusion will not be the holy grail that many hoped for. That fact does not imply I think nothing useful will come out of this.

The Futility of Wind and Solar Power in One Easy to Understand Picture

Meanwhile, let’s discuss where we are staring with The Futility of Wind and Solar Power in One Easy to Understand Picture

Net Zero Is a Very Unlikely Outcome

More importantly, please consider Sorry Green Energy Fans, Net Zero Is a Very Unlikely Outcome

If you disagree, or even if you don’t, please read the above article and tell me what we are supposed to do, how we are going to do it, and who will bear the costs.

Realistically, what should we expect other than total failure of existing goals?

I suggest we are better off pursuing that line of thought than focusing on the mythical unobtanium.