“Fusion is not a typical bet”: Interview with Silicon Valley investor Mark Coopersmith
By Dan Drollette Jr | November 12, 2024
Roulette wheel image courtesy of AndrasBarta/Pixabay
“Fusion is not a typical bet”: Interview with Silicon Valley investor Mark Coopersmith
By Dan Drollette Jr | November 12, 2024
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Keywords: ITER, Nuclear Fusion Energy, VC, alternative energy, electricity, energy, private funding, venture capital
Topics: Climate Change, Nuclear Energy
Dan Drollette Jr
Dan Drollette Jr is the executive editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He is a science writer/editor and foreign correspondent... Read More
The nuclear fusion energy experimental efforts began in the 1950s and the sales pitches have often claimed that the hydrogen fuel was virtually limitless, up to the present. Even today the pitchers omit mentioning that the current commercial price of radioactive tritium is approximately $30,000 USD per gram. Typically the investors and funders have no deep understanding in this arcane and very complex technical field. Many of the plasma physicists and engineers working in the field have found that they can easily snow outsiders regarding the progress that they are achieving. Many have also learned that, as delays are encountered,… Read more »
Concerning “net positive electricity from a fusion reaction”, about which Coopersmith states “it appears that’s happened in some form.” That is incorrect. Every fusion facility consumes megawatts to hundreds of megawatts of electricity, or megajoules for pulsed systems, but no device has ever produced even 1 watt or 1 joule of fusion-derived electricity while gorging on megawatts or megajoules. To be clear, I’m not talking about net electricity output, which may never be possible. I’m talking about any electric output whatsoever, simultaneous with enormous power consumption that’s orders of magnitude larger. It’s unlikely that anyone can make even that modest a demonstration… Read more »
I might get interested if someone explained a very cheap way to turn fusion energy into electricity. Steam cycles are too costly—manyfold uncompetitive with renewables (or efficient use) even if the heat source were free. (Including “firming” for equal reliability actually advantages variable renewables over big thermal stations.) A couple of fusion firms claim they can do direct conversion from charged particles, but the fusion experts I’ve asked don’t see how. The wholesale electricity price to beat is 1–3¢/kWh from modern unsubsidized renewables—not an order of magnitude more from fission reactors. I’ll bet many investors don’t understand that competitive landscape.
Fusion research is really a very bad joke. Billions spent, with billions more needed to reach supposed commercialization with an ever receding future timeline, always decades away. Let’s concentrate on proven, practical, existing clean energy technologies. This is needed now.