I am always eager for good alternative energy news, whether bc it’s credible and will alleviate my climate anxiety or bc it’s about some disgraced Italian prof’s over-unity box (that no the press may NOT inspect) and it’s hilarious. But today’s NYT fusion story was frustrating!

University press releases are usually wildly overblown but the one from MIT about this is actually quite helpful. I think it might be the first first university press release about scientific research I have ever read that does not end with “and lead to new cancer therapies.”

Anyway it’s here and these are the most important parts. TLDR plugging new materials into the models they’re using for ITER produces such a huge fudge factor that people are feeling v confident relative to how nervous they are about ITER https://news.mit.edu/2020/physics-fusion-studies-0929

I am not a plasma physicist (sorry, but it’s time to come clean) but I suspect they’d tell you that solving your current hugely difficult problem doesn’t mean there won’t be new & unexpected ones; & that “how will we get fuel in/energy out?” will also prob be impt to figure out