Fusion Future Dims

Nov. 10, 2012 – By Steven B. Krivit –

An October 2012 report issued by the Electric Power Research Institute, in Palo Alto, Calif., “Assessment of Fusion Energy Options for Commercial Electricity Production,” states that commercial fusion power is not likely for at least 30 years.

The conclusion of the report is that, “although significant progress is being made in many areas, commercial application is not likely for at least 30 years — if the concepts prove feasible.”

Dr. Robert Park, former spokesman for the American Physical Society, was quoted about hot fusion research in The Rebirth of Cold Fusion, by Steven B. Krivit and Nadine Winocur.

“It turned out to be much harder than we thought,” Park said, “but they make steady progress. It’s not spectacular progress, but the joke is it’s the energy source of the future and it always will be, because they’re constantly giving you an estimate of how many years before we have controlled fusion reactors in business and it doesn’t happen.”

The satirical utterance of fusion cynics is proving to be more reliable than the projections made by its proponents.

The October report was by Albert Machiels, an EPRI project manager who also worked on earlier EPRI projects that included low-energy nuclear reaction research. The October report reviews a variety of fusion concepts. LENRs are not discussed.

LENRs were, however, reviewed in an August 2012 EPRI report, “Program on Technology Innovation: Assessment of Novel Energy Production Mechanisms in a Nanoscale Metal Lattice.”

That report concluded, “Continued independent experimental work is recommended in this area. The exact physical mechanisms are still unknown, and a reliable and robust experimental system test is warranted to gain further understanding of the commercial viability of this possibly new energy production mechanism.”