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Bill Gates promises to add his own billions if Congress does nuclear power push

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Re: Bill Gates promises to add his own billions if Congress does nuclear power push

#5

Wow! I hope his fusion push works out. I think he was working with that tokamak design from MIT last I checked. The design used a magnetic tape that was a new breakthrough, there is a youtube video explaining the details.

This isn’t about fusion, but fission. I would assume that Gates being a famously bright man, understands that none of us are seeing fusion power in our lifetimes. Of course Gates is backing an extremely challenging form of breeder reactor called a TWR. Still, any progress on nuclear at this point is good, and desperately needed.

Re: Bill Gates promises to add his own billions if Congress does nuclear power push

#6

Wow! I hope his fusion push works out. I think he was working with that tokamak design from MIT last I checked. The design used a magnetic tape that was a new breakthrough, there is a youtube video explaining the details.

This seems to be about fission not fusion. Spending billions on fission research seems wasteful when you could leverage that into wind solar projects whose profits could then be reinvested into even more clean energy.

Add in leverage and say 2 billion in research could represent 10-20+ billion worth of clean energy investments before the fruits of this research could come online. And even then you would need to spend even more money actually building something useful.

This could be my own bias talking but fission has seen 100+ Billion in R&D. I have my doubts this is going to move the needle much.

PS: I am more than open to any counter arguments you have...

Re: Bill Gates promises to add his own billions if Congress does nuclear power push

#8
post #3

He should do it without begging for public handouts. He's wealthy enough.

Turning around the public opinion on nuclear power absolutely requires government. And we are taking about adopting a mature tech that was shuned away by misconception...

Re: Bill Gates promises to add his own billions if Congress does nuclear power push

#9
post #3

He should do it without begging for public handouts. He's wealthy enough.

Might be some regulatory fast tracking if the government also buys in.

That's right. It's smart to get the opposition on board instead of having to duke it out with them.

Re: Bill Gates promises to add his own billions if Congress does nuclear power push

#10
Pushing for green energy and good deeds with the current administration makes me fear for the health of Bill Gates... is he running out of time and considering desperate options? ... now that I think about it, we all are running out of time ... :-( ...
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