janpor

I wondered if you even read my post, or you even went to the site of the ITER-project, or made a small research of the knowledge and former research regarding nuclear fusion...
The ITER-project is, as I said, an experimental reactor.
But this research is already going on for almost 30 years...
You're right when you say it will take probably almost 50 years or so that we can built real, operatable and profitable nuclear fusion plants...
As you know fusion power is the same as the energy of a star, that is why we also are spending a lot of money on theoretical physics...
I'm talking about the research at the French-Swiss border were they built the Large Hadron Collidor (LHC), that is meant to tell us of what matter the universe is built of... if you want more information about this subject I refer you to the National Geographic Magazine of March 2008 (this article (with amazing photos) was published worlwide).
This project, and also the ITER-project (and many, many others), are the beginning of a new era...not only for humankind but also for Europe as a whole...that demands it's place back after more than 50 years as the spill of scientific research!

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"Nos pays sont devenus trop petits pour le monde actuel, à l'échelle des moyens techniques modernes, à la mesure de l'Amérique et de la Russie aujourd'hui, de la Chine et de l'Inde demain. L'unité des peuples européens réunis dans les Etats-Unis d'Europe est le moyen de relever leur niveau de vie et de maintenir la paix. Elle est le grand espoir et la chance de notre époque. Nous aussi, nous allons vers notre but, les Etats-Unis d'Europe, dans une course sans retour."

Jean Monnet - Rome 1957

Slartibartfas

Janpor, you can of course be proud at the success story of nuclear phsyics in Europe. But one should maintain an open minded view.

Europe is not the sole player on this field, nor did it simply became one out of nothing. CERN has already quite a history by now, for example.

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Nemmie7

Slartibartfas

You are correct that the material science is inherently important. Its also one of the goals of ITER to progress on this issue. As far as I know are however other fields of physics of very interest as well and last but not least dont underestimate the challenge of scale up.

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mrnumbersman

The other problem with fusion reactors is controlling the reaction. In fission they use graphite rods and insert them into the water to control the reaction. In fusion it is much more difficult. And this may be related to the materials discussion you folks were having.

I just remember taking physics 25 years ago and our professor discussing it and the problems with it.

Then there was Stanley Pond and the cold water fusion and how that was shot down. Repeatedly.

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Ask yourself everyday when you get up "What is of utmost importance?"

Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
C. S. Lewis