Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
Yes, other than generating geothermal energy through the decay of radioactive isotopes in the depths of the Earth, fission is just a rounding error for natural energy production. It is fusion, specifically the proton-proton fusion process, that drives the production of energy in the Sun (and it was more energetic fusion processes or exotic processes like photoerosion that created everything larger than helium-4). And quite frankly, any rational society would have made the necessary investments to replicate solar fusion instead of trying to develop a form of fusion that could consume the products of fission (tritium) as the major fuel.
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Protium fusion is non-trivially more difficult than deuterium/deuterium or deuterium/tritium or even He3 fusion. It's
much harder, and we haven't really mastered even the easier reactions yet. I don't think it's necessarily a question of how much we invest for solar fusion.