Fusion reactors: Not what they’re cracked up to be
There's nothing quite like trying to get fusion to work for a while to make you appreciate how awesome fission technology is.If we applied even half the cleverness needed for fusion to making better fission technology, we'd probably be way better off....and then there's solar. Why even bother with producing the energy, just capture it with a very thin solid state device! Just need to automate the planting of solar panels in the desert, and we could produce all of our electricity from the Sun. Using just a fifth to a tenth of the land (and much crappier land that nothing much can grow on) that we use for /ethanol/ production alone.(Yes, storage is tough, but is getting cheaper, and we can just plant more solar panels so there's enough power even during cloudy days... Although this is mostly a thought exercise. The best plan for deep decarbonization by far is to operate with a mix of clean power sources optimized for high capacity factor, including at least our current nuclear fleet... They help provide a reliable baseline which drastically reduces the amount of storage and over-installation required. That last 20% of power produced by nuclear is worth its weight in gold and should be protected at least until all fossil power production is ended.)