david robertsDec 14, 2022
Drives me crazy that people are still pining away for some magic blue-light arc-reacor sci-fi energy source to save us when solar and wind are out there doing it, as we speak.
Show threaddavid robertsDec 14, 2022

"If only we could generate energy cheaper than any fossil fuel, but free of carbon emissions!"

Uh.

Show threaddavid robertsDec 15, 2022

And solar's not even close to done yet!

"MIT engineers have developed a scalable fabrication technique to produce paper-thin and lightweight solar cells that can quickly and easily turn any surface into a power source." https://pvbuzz.com/mit-produce-paper-thin-and-lightweight-fabric-solar-cells/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

MIT develops a scalable manufacturing technique to produce paper-thin, lightweight fabric solar cells that can be stuck onto any surface

pvbuzz.com
Show threaddavid robertsDec 15, 2022

The fusion discourse is extremely annoying, but it'll be gone again in a day or two, so let me just add two final notes to this.

First: no one, least of all me, is "against" fusion or fusion research. Research away! Yay for science.

Show threaddavid robertsDec 15, 2022
Two: what bugs me is nothing about fusion itself but what I see as a very familiar kind of anti-politics. There's a craving for a deus ex machina that solves all problems & transforms everything without all the tedious arguing, fighting, & battling for every inch of ground.
Show threaddavid robertsDec 15, 2022
This craving to bypass politics is understandable, but it's bad. Even if fusion proved viable tomorrow, there would still be politics. There would still be fights & disagreements & factionalism. It would still be a long battle to transform the energy system.
Show threaddavid roberts
People want to transform energy without disrupting the basic systems of political power -- that's a big part of the impetus for "just slot nuke plants in for coal plants & call it a day." System justification is a powerful subconscious force.
https://www.volts.wtf/p/why-social-change-is-so-excruciatingly#details
Why social change is so excruciatingly difficult

When we look across the broad sweep of human history, what needs explaining is not times of rebellion and upheaval, but the much more common periods of unjust rule facing little resistance. Why do people so often internalize the ideologies upholding systems under which they suffer? Why do they fail to fight back? Psychologist John Jost has an answer. I talked it over with him.

Volts
Dec 15, 2022 at 8:46pmWeb
Show threaddavid robertsDec 15, 2022
Anyway, part of the appeal of the future-tech stuff is that there's no nasty politics attached to it -- because it's theoretical & in the future. But if it became real, nasty politics would attach to it. Such is life. No way out but through, etc.
Show thread***Dave Hill 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇨🇦🇬🇱🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️Dec 15, 2022

@drvolts Not mentioned in the discussions I've read the past week:

1. Tritium (the most likely Hydrogen isotope for use) is usually created in nuclear (fission) reactors.

2. Fusion reactors themselves will likely become irradiated over the course of their operation, requiring hazardous disposal.

These environmental threats are a ton less than for conventional nukes (or coal, ftm), but they will certainly result in some "nasty politics".

Show threadMartin Vermeer FCDDec 15, 2022
@three_star_dave @drvolts Yes. Though tritium may be produced by neutron irradiation in a lithium blanket around the fusion vessel.
Show threadPeter PrincipleDec 15, 2022
@drvolts The libertarian utopia: Oligarchy + fusion power.
Show threadTracy HallDec 15, 2022

@drvolts

Even if "magic energy sources" such as fusion (or The Expanse's Epstein Drive) WERE already possible - that energy STILL has to be converted to electricity somehow, and THAT part of the plant is STILL every bit as complex, slow and expensive to build and maintain.

Show threadMartin Vermeer FCDDec 15, 2022
@drvolts Remembering how Dutch anarchists (the 'kabouters') wrote about this back in the 1970s: fossil-fuel and nuclear plants are centralized and centralize political control (France back then as a cautionary example). Decentralized wind and PV undermines that. Imagine how survivable the Ukraine energy system would have been...
Show threadDaniel Bond Dec 15, 2022
@drvolts "just slot nuke plants in for coal plants" is China's whole plan, right? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-climate-goals-hinge-on-440-billion-nuclear-power-plan-to-rival-u-s
China’s Climate Goals Hinge on a $440 Billion Nuclear Buildout

China is planning at least 150 new reactors in the next 15 years, more than the rest of the world has built in the past 35.

Bloomberg