Article about designing new fusion powerplants

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The discussion centers around skepticism regarding the viability of fusion power, highlighting a paper titled "Public Perspectives on the Design of Fusion Energy Facilities." The paper focuses on a participatory design workshop involving community members and engineering students, emphasizing collaborative design rather than making concrete predictions about the timeline for fusion power plants. Participants humorously note the inclusion of whimsical ideas, such as aesthetic considerations for fusion facilities, including references to pop culture like Homer Simpson. The conversation reflects a sense of irony about the seriousness of the discussions, comparing them to surreal scenarios. Ultimately, the thread concludes with a recognition of the paper's lack of substantive predictions and a light-hearted acknowledgment of its fanciful elements.
sbrothy
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I'm a little sceptic as we've been told that fusion power is just around the corner for more or less most of the last century. This paper:

Public Perspectives on the Design of Fusion Energy Facilities,

which apart from being exciting in itself seems to be pretty optimistic about it. I stopped reading when I found this one on page 10 though:


Idea Category
[...]
Unsorted. Ambiguous or unrelated ideas.
[...]
Examples
[...]
Homer Simpson
[...]


:smile:
 
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It's not really a paper making actual predictions about how soon fusion power plants will be viable, it's about a workshop they held to discuss how the design of fusion plants should be handled:

we develop a participatory design methodology for collaboratively designing fusion energy facilities with prospective host communities. We present here our findings from a participatory design workshop that brought together 22 community participants and 34 engineering students.
 
Yeh. You're right. So basically it's science fiction. :frown:

EDIT: Also, I admit I posted the thread tongue in cheek when I encountered the Homer Simpson reference. Thence this sub-forum.
 
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The link seemed a lot like debating what colour the facilities should be.
 
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Ken Fabian said:
The link seemed a lot like debating what colour the facilities should be.
I don't know if you actually read it but there's a section in there literally discussing that very point! :smile:

EDIT:

It's in the same table as the one with the Homer Simpson reference showing that they atually discussed it:

Aesthetics. Includes ideas related to appearance and sensory appeal.Brightly colored and vibrant. Blends with environment. Carved into mountain. Music.

So a shockingly pink fusion plant carved into a mountainside with whalesong in the background.

That's what the future looks (and sounds) like! I wonder how that would have been received in the context of fission plants?! ?:)


EDIT:

Which, incidentally reminds me of the old joke from POSIX fortune:

Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: 2. One to change the light bulb and one to fill the bathtub with brightly colored machine tools.
 
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I apologize for my tendency to edit my posts after I post them. *BUMP*.
 
@sbrothy - I read the abstract/summary, didn't do the full paper. I thought it was getting a tad ahead of ourselves. It was something out of one of those Hitchhiker's Guide stories that came to my mind - a committee of hairdressers and telephone sanitizers marooned on pre-historic Earth arguing over that "wheel thingy".
 
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Ken Fabian said:
@sbrothy - I read the abstract/summary, didn't do the full paper. I thought it was getting a tad ahead of ourselves. It was something out of one of those Hitchhiker's Guide stories that came to my mind - a committee of hairdressers and telephone sanitizers marooned on pre-historic Earth arguing over that "wheel thingy".
Couldn't have said it better myself. :smile:
 
Okay, since we seem to have figured out what this article is about, I'll go ahead and close out the thread. :smile:
 
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