It would be great to see a breakthrough in Fusion, as we are about to see an explosion (pardon the pun) in Fission, primarily so we can have things like bitcoin and AI porn.

Hi Vivian: Nice homework on the UW atomic lab. However, writing about atomic energy, fission or fusion should not be in a "climate" issue. They only make the climate crisis worse. Atomic energy is a big distraction and waste of money and energy. As Amory Lovins quipped years ago, "it's like cutting butter with a chainsaw." Not to mention that atomic energy is dead financially and environmentally. If you read our Third Act WA Op Ed you will see that to displace the solar energy installed in the US, just in 2024, it would take building 20 large atomic power plants a year, at 5 times the cost. The "stupid" rich "smart" people investing in atomic energy are wasting their time and money. One good thing is your article illuminated the challenges of fusion energy. "Let see, we need a magnetic field to hold a million degree temperature reaction, and then run an old fashion steam turbine, without failure." Don't be a victim of the atomic energy propaganda and fossil fuel PR machine. I call it "energy racism", i.e. solar is not good enough, smart enough.." See: https://wind-works.org/the-fossil-fuel-industry-trapped-dangerous/
Cheers, Steve Smiley, Third Act WA

@2 -- The article does a great job in explaining the fundamental advantages of fusion over fission. It is possible that we see advances in fusion energy that allow it to be the dominant form of energy in the future with relatively few side effects. In contrast I just don't see that with fission (for the reasons mentioned).

But I would bet on geothermal energy over fusion. There are similarities. The idea has been around a long time but eventually a technology gets so advanced it can essentially be the default. But fusion seems like it has farther to go while geothermal energy is growing substantially the last few years and seems ready to make a major contribution really soon. (https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2025/04/geothermal-energy-boom/682291/).

That doesn't mean that wind and solar energy becomes useless. They would complement each other (especially in the short run). It makes sense to have energy redundancy. But one of the big things we can do is just be more energy efficient. In our homes, how we get around -- everything. Oh, and eat less meat (especially beef). If we become a lot more energy efficient and transition to clean energy sources we could get out of this mess without too much damage.