IP theft is a thing and yet China can't make Nvidia GPUs and I can bet $10 it won't be able to in 2030. I don't see why the west could 'just' copy a Chinese energy-positive tokamak even if it had all the plans. (Yes I know this one isn't that.)
The wake up call is for the west to be able to do that at the very least.
To be fair the US also can't make Nvidia GPUs and neither can anyone outside of Taiwan. Agreed that IP isn't everything but the chip shortage during covid sure as hell WAS a wake up call to the west.
Now they are finding that actually its going to take a decade to reproduce what the chip fabs in Taiwan have built even with their help.
Fusion is never, ever going to be economical. The fuel is basically free, which is great. Meanwhile, the reactors themselves are arguably the most complex and expensive machines ever built, and they are essentially disposable due to the nature of fusion reactions.
There's a reason that the wise engineers who built our only working fusion reactor put it about 1 AU away from us. Much cheaper and easier to just catch the energy it sends us.
Given the impact the world has already seen because we let two companies tie up LiFePO4, after we let a few companies tie up other battery patents for hybrids before that...
TBH I would judge the world if they just went ahead and 'stole' it vs RAND licensing...
At the same time, I can see it being one hell of a hypothetical 'carrot' for lots of things, and of the current major powers, China is the only one with enough overall (political+humanpower+etc) will (at this time, anyway) to possibly make Fusion happen sooner than ITER can.
Strategically speaking, it would 'make sense' for them to pursue... Would the European union force NL's hand, to make ASML sell machines for whatever comes after EUV, in exchange for Fusion tech? Or all sorts of other fun things for the right Q factor?
> Why?
IP theft is a thing and yet China can't make Nvidia GPUs and I can bet $10 it won't be able to in 2030. I don't see why the west could 'just' copy a Chinese energy-positive tokamak even if it had all the plans. (Yes I know this one isn't that.)
The wake up call is for the west to be able to do that at the very least.
To be fair the US also can't make Nvidia GPUs and neither can anyone outside of Taiwan. Agreed that IP isn't everything but the chip shortage during covid sure as hell WAS a wake up call to the west.
Now they are finding that actually its going to take a decade to reproduce what the chip fabs in Taiwan have built even with their help.
Fusion is never, ever going to be economical. The fuel is basically free, which is great. Meanwhile, the reactors themselves are arguably the most complex and expensive machines ever built, and they are essentially disposable due to the nature of fusion reactions.
There's a reason that the wise engineers who built our only working fusion reactor put it about 1 AU away from us. Much cheaper and easier to just catch the energy it sends us.
Given the impact the world has already seen because we let two companies tie up LiFePO4, after we let a few companies tie up other battery patents for hybrids before that...
TBH I would judge the world if they just went ahead and 'stole' it vs RAND licensing...
At the same time, I can see it being one hell of a hypothetical 'carrot' for lots of things, and of the current major powers, China is the only one with enough overall (political+humanpower+etc) will (at this time, anyway) to possibly make Fusion happen sooner than ITER can.
Strategically speaking, it would 'make sense' for them to pursue... Would the European union force NL's hand, to make ASML sell machines for whatever comes after EUV, in exchange for Fusion tech? Or all sorts of other fun things for the right Q factor?
Things become murkier.