Submitted by i_owe_them13 t3_zpax7p in askscience
hegbork t1_j0tb4k8 wrote
Reply to comment by Captain-Barracuda in How do X-rays “compress” a nuclear fusion pellet? by i_owe_them13
You don't, it's basically impossible with this kind of setup and it was never something they designed for. The mission of NIF is to perform fusion experiments so that they can replace nuclear bomb testing. This whole talk about power generation is probably just marketing to get more funding.
It was pretty clear during the press conference. Everyone involved was talking about "stewardship" as the first part of their statements. There was some handwavey stuff about private actors taking this experiment and running with it for power generation, but it should be pretty clear what the market thinks about this technology by observing that fusion startups that claim to want to shoot things with lasers have almost no funding.
Colddigger t1_j0tjjn1 wrote
Funny, most tech plays up their usefulness in military use for funding, while this steers away from that obvious path in favor of the vague fusion dream.
toastar-phone t1_j0ujhad wrote
Was the idea of bomb testing ever a serious idea outside selling congress for money?
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments