After decades of decline, the US national fusion lab seeks a rebirth

[Peter1469]

After decades of decline, the US national fusion lab seeks a rebirth

Fusion will be the ultimate clean fuel. It is only a matter of time.

***


Yet things may be looking up for the lab. After years of DOE reviews, PPPL researchers expect to start to rebuild NSTX in April. And a year ago, a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) urged the United States not only to stick with ITER—which is hugely overbudget and behind schedule—but also to prepare to build the machine after it. This would be a prototype power plant, smaller and cheaper than ITER, and PPPL would likely play a leading role in building it.

Perhaps most important, in 2018 Princeton University, which runs the lab for DOE, hired a new lab director. Steven Cowley, a strapping 60-year-old Englishman with a shock of silver hair and a knighthood, makes no bones about his role as an agent of change. “My job as a director is not to be an administrator,” he says in his velvety baritone. “It’s about scientific vision. What should we be doing? What are the interesting questions? How do we get to fusion?” He already has a plan to diversify the lab’s work, grow its staff, and start to build things again.

Physicists are watching PPPL as a bellwether for the fortunes of the U.S. fusion program, whose share of the world’s public fusion research has slipped to just one-sixth. And some observers who have been critical of the lab’s previous leadership and culture think PPPL is finally on the right track. “Steve is the best person on the planet for the job,” says William Madia, former director of two other DOE national labs, who urged Princeton to hire Cowley. “I’m optimistic.” Yet the lab still faces obstacles on the path to redemption.

NSTX RESEMBLES an extraterrestrial spaceship.

[MisterVeritis]

After decades of decline, the US national fusion lab seeks a rebirth

Fusion will be the ultimate clean fuel. It is only a matter of time.

I tend to doubt it. Fusion we can believe in is a wickedly hard problem. For the last fifty or so years we have been just fifty years away from a solution.

It may take a shift in our understanding before there can be a solution. Then once we understand how, we must figure out how. That is also a hard problem.

[countryboy]

After decades of decline, the US national fusion lab seeks a rebirth

Fusion will be the ultimate clean fuel. It is only a matter of time.

Yep, it's always 10 years away, lol. What we really need is a reliable source of dilithium crystals.

[Peter1469]

Yep, it's always 10 years away, lol. What we really need is a reliable source of dilithium crystals.

Actually the new lab will be using deuterium, a heavier isotope of hydrogen. It is very rare on earth. Guess where there is a lot? The moon.

Fusion has been achieved, just not at less power used than generated. That is the hold up.

[countryboy]

Actually the new lab will be using deuterium, a heavier isotope of hydrogen. It is very rare on earth. Guess where there is a lot? The moon.

Fusion has been achieved, just not at less power used than generated. That is the hold up.

I was just messing with you, dilithium is fictional, it's a Trekkie thing. I am familiar with deuterium. I do not believe that usable fusion energy is anywhere in the near future, if ever. But I sincerely hope I am wrong.