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Comment by gene-h | Hacker News Reader

NIF uses inefficient lasers because they were cheap to build at the time and because NIF is a science experiment. Lasers have gotten better. And lasers aren't the only way ICF fusion could be carried out, it may be possible to use ion beams instead[0].

It does not matter if fusion reactions last microseconds if they generate more energy. Using optimistic, but not unrealistic assumptions, it appears feasible for electricity costs to reach $25 per MWh[1] with ICF. With the most important factors driving cost being achieving high gain and yield per shot

[0]https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/650904/

[1]https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2020.005...

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Those numbers don't seem feasible. Near as I can tell, a steam generator with a magical source of never-ending heat would cost $15/MWh. There is no way a high-tech facility and the personnel required to run it are costing $10/MWh.

What’s your math on $15/MWh? As far as I can tell, the steam turbine is a pretty insignificant part of the price of coal energy generation

$15/MWh is 1.5 ¢/KWh, right? that's pretty darn cheap and means that the other 10~20 cents would be transmission and fuel, yes?

20 cents? I pay 13/kWh.

You're within the stated range, do you think you have the most expensive electricity in the world? 25c/kwh isn't unreasonable. Ireland pays 52c/kwh.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-price...

Are you allowing for cooling towers, water treatment, pipework, and so on? Also the grid connection hardware, spare turbines, cooling pumps, etc., and O&M costs?

There are three routes to bypass this issue:

1. Move to supercritical Co2 turbines (lower mass —> lower cost), need RnD on corrosion resistant alloys

2. Move to thermoelectric or photovoltaic generators

3. Use aneutronic fusion

Directly use the charged particles

1. would have been done already if there were such alloys.

2. photovoltaic generators seem popular, but the don't require spending money on a fusion core.

3. The problem is hard, so let's replace it with a harder one?

NIF exists to research nuclear weapons without breaking the treaties. Their fusion energy research is a nice corollary but it is absolutely not their focus.

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