What to know about nuclear fusion amid congressional push

Let's break this down, this technology is at least 35 to 100 years away from being deployed in a commercial setting. The only nuclear technology that we have that's viable right now is fission and the amount of nuclear waste is greatly exaggerated.

We should fund new fission reactors as well and recycle fuel.

No Mention of ITER, sadly. It shows the ginormouse size of such an undertaking.

I hate how dumbed down this was. . .

Very misleading to talk about the NIF experiment producing a net gain. That's only if you measure the energy absorbed by the plasma and compare it to the energy produced by the reaction. They neglect to mention that the electricity used to power the lasers was 100x more!

This needs to happen

Its kinda lol how we have news anchors that pretend to be laymen, throw dump trucks of money at moonshots, and somehow still get there.

Now I know why my citys power grid went down for 5 hours lol, I live really close to nif

Allow me, CBS. Sometimes people with lots of money want to make the world a better place. Sometimes those people invest in fusion efforts. Then they discover the state of the technology. They realize they are not going to be the ones holding the bag when the tech finally pays out. They arrange a 'breakthrough' - just gotta beat your personal best in one single category. How's permanent containment coming? We don't talk about permanent containment. We turn these things on for 15 seconds then we have to gut the insides. "We will have fusion within our lifetimes. I got a buddy in the clinical immortality racket"

Professor of public policy? Why don’t you actually talk to a fusion researcher instead of someone not even in the field?

Fusion isnt "compression" its slamming two atoms together

Toraeador! Don't you know what it's for!

The hurdle after actually producing a working fusion reactor is making them cheap enough that the electricity can compete with other sources. If it costs $5 per kwh then it won't happen.

I wonder if the new anchor asked if there was a recent breakthrough for the sake of the audience, or if he really didn't know. "I have this interview coming up on nuclear fusion. Maybe I should type fusion into google and see what comes up. No, I don't want to over-prepare for the interview."

THIS

We want access to our own nuclear fusion

This is a professor of public policy, not of physics. He has no idea what's going on with fusion.

It's ridiculous that some talking head has to explain the difference between fission and fusion today. Every single person alive that is capable of watching this should know the difference.

The energy source of the future...and always will be. But don't let that stop you from wasting money and time.

I look forward to matter-antimatter reactors way more.