Redstate

By kowalski Posted in Technology — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Hi folks:

Most people who have been around on this blog during my time here know that one of my important interests is the development of thermonuclear fusion energy as one of America's true 'alternative' energy sources. I see it as one of the three best, most important sources of central power station energy for the United States and elsewhere in the world in this century, along with conventional fission and exoatmospheric solar power.

My optimism about fusion power isn't based on ridiculous and damaging scandals like the one that destroyed the reputations of Pons and Fleischmann on the front page of the New York Times. And it isn't based on the aimless speculations of Philo T. Farnsworth detractors, nor anyone else who thinks they're going to invent a practical, production fusion power reactor in their backyard. It is based on the simple fact that controlled thermonuclear fusion reactions should be possible, and that in fact our world relies on the energy derived from a constrained (if not precisely controlled) reaction of that exact type, which you can see whenever you look outside at the Sun or the stars.

I realize that practical thermonuclear fusion powerplants are a couple of decades away, and that there is a great deal of R&D to be done before someone can claim that they're going to produce power for a country as large as the United States. However, that is not stopping the French from hosting the first ITER pre-production reactor, and so I'm asking for your help, back here on American soil:

I would like to conduct interviews with people at both the NIF and at PPPL, in an exclusive feature for Redstate and also at TMR/Hinzsight. Hey, with pictures if I can. :)

I'm not a plasma physicist but I'm not that much dumber (I hope) and with a couple of weeks of reading I feel confident that I could ask some intelligent questions that would move the discussion forward on a purely scientfic basis first, but also with an eye toward energy policy. What I'd like to know is whether anyone here at Redstate has intelligent questions they'd like me to ask? And of course I would also appreciate anyone who knows someone at Princeton or NIF who might be able to help me land the interview.

I promise not to take up too much of their time. I want to do this in the best sense of citizen journalism and ask the most intelligent questions I can, hence this thread. If fusion power is a boondoggle, we should abandon it. On the other hand, in the most direct sense it is the most important power source America could develop. And so I'm asking for your input here.

I strongly believe that the world's problems with pollution and recycling, not to mention energy itself, are a symptom of our using *too little* energy, *too expensively*. I firmly believe that the way forward for the human race is to develop the means to change that grim equation. So please think about it and give me some meaningful input here.

I intend to try to conduct these interviews without the help, but I would prefer if it was a joint effort, beginning here at Redstate.