I was actually thinking research should go into Nuclear development. I just don't know if we can get people to accept it because of all the fallout and radiation risks. People are so opposed to it, despite all the long term risks we take by remaining dependent on oil, that they don't even seem to see. How close are we to developing Fusion? In addition to being a good potential power source, it was my favorite power plant in SimCity 2000.
The nuclear fusion topic is another vast one, although I don't know that much about it yet as it's still a "non-mainstream" topic for the most part. Most of what I've read/watched/learned has to do with Dr. Robert Bussard's Polywell idea (Bussard died Sat. Oct 6, 2007 btw, but he left behind a team of researchers which should be well qualified to continue his work)
The 18 billion dollar question is, what's the deal with ITER and the whole donut-shaped Tokamak reactor project? According to Bussard, it is a tragic waste of time and money. He was instrumental in the project's creation, but he and other researchers didn't expect it to go far because it was known for a while that the idea was a wash. But it's become the government's brainchild, a high-budget project taken on a life of its own. I personally don't have much confidence that anything will come of it. But all of this is from listening to Bussard's opinion in his talk and interview, so I haven't checked this opinion with much fact yet.
Other researchers are working on spherical confinement systems (
Inertial Electrostatic Confinement), where fusion is attempted by concentrating matter into a single point, using a globe-like confinement structure. Similar to a star, in other words--spherical in form. Makes sense huh? Bussard's Polywell concept works like this. Particularly attractive is his idea that using Boron and hydrogen can produce fusion with the option of collecting energy directly from electron transfer (much more efficient energy capture than using the resulting heat to operate a steam turbine as with conventional nuclear and fossil fuel power plants), and the end resulting waste is completely non-radioactive
Here's some links to Bussard's work. I highly recommend acquainting yourself with it and maybe searching through some more material. I haven't looked at some of the other ideas out there myself.
Dr. Robert Bussard -
wikipedia page
Bussard's Google Tech Talk -
Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap, nuclear power (no, really) (Too technical, makes my head spin, but the 2nd time watching it it made a little more sense...)
Bussard's last interview before he died -
Dr. Robert Bussard's Fusion Breakthrough (Highly recommend listening to this if you have an hour to spare, it's a little less technical and a little more inspirational)
Polywell reactor -
wikipedia page
Links to community resources about IEC fusion and Polywell concepts -
Classical Values :: Dr. Robert W. Bussard Has Passed
Public/media awareness page created by one of the researchers:
PolywellEnergy
ITER -
wikipedia page
I am interested in researching more about the Tokamak project (mainly to check some of Bussard's negative claims against it) and other IEC-based projects out there. Bussard's Google Tech Talk got my interest piqued on the whole topic.
You know, I wonder what it would take to get into the energy industry. While I love IT work and it pays very well, some part of me finds excitement in learning about (and working with) energy, and I could imagine making a career out of it. I wonder how I could get my foot in the door, or where I could...