Figure 1. Good Looking n-U Fusion Plant in Central California
An uppity choir member has castigated me for not mentioning Trialpha in the piece on fusion. But Trialpha's interesting concept is based on blasting Boron-11 with a proton, which then splits into three heliums. How can he call that fusion?
But just as I was about to throw him out of the choir loft and onto the congregation below, I realized I had it totally backwards. What we have in 90 odd power plants spread around the country are n-U fusion reactors. These devices fuse a neutron with a U-235 nucleus to create electricity with an engineering gain of about 18. That's at least ten times better than the claimed engineering gains of any of the other fusion concepts of which I am aware, none of which claims are close to being proven. This is the breakthrough in fusion we have all been waiting for.
I suggest that the operators of these fusion plants apply to the NRC for their Section 30 license quickly. Alternatively, if your plant is in an Agreement State, you can go to your state regulatory agency.
Literally laughed out loud at this.
lol. So Fermi was the first to have a sustained/controlled fusion reaction.