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Comment by throwaway_pdp09 | Hacker News Reader

Are you speaking from personal experience with ITER? You've said some damning things about projects in general but there's no backup for:

"crushing engineers pitilessly under the weight of the bureaucracy"

"Elements of the ITER project have been planned 30 years ahead"

"There is no possible path through ITER and then DEMO to achieve commercial power generation before 2050. None"

"ITER used a legacy superconducting wire in their designs"

Further

> Because planning ahead is required, only existing, established technologies can be used.

You can't plan to use nonexisting technologies when that tech (superconductivity) was so very little understood.

Your criticisms seem unwarranted and unverifiable.

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> You can't plan to use nonexisting technologies when that tech (superconductivity) was so very little understood.

That's exactly the problem. No one is allowed to fail so nothing is discovered.

And exactly how is superconductivity so very little understood? It's used in massive projects the world over from superconducting cables to maglev trains to numerous other things. And none of that has been figured out by ITER. ITER is the worst thing for fusion research in decades.

This is a ridiculous response.

> No one is allowed to fail so nothing is discovered.

2nd para in wiki article: "It [ITER] is an experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER) It is an experiment, it was never expected to have certain outcomes.You don't seem to understand that.

> And exactly how is superconductivity so very little understood?

That's not what I said. Here "when that tech (superconductivity) was so very little understood"

Note: 'was'. Not 'is'. (see edit below)

As for the progression in their understanding I'll leave that for a physicist to discuss. You aren't.

Edit: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconductivity#High-tempera... for a list of recent stuff (eg. last 15 years). And stop shouting about how stupid everyone else is.

And ITER isn't using those newer superconductors. They're using outdated tech before it's even finished building.

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