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243 points greesil | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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apples_oranges ◴[] No.44636362[source]
Looking at the picture, I wonder if complexity of these devices will significantly be reduced once it finally works. I assume a lot of the bells and whistles are needed to find the way, but once it's found..
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StevenWaterman ◴[] No.44636480[source]
Your question reminds me of the image showing how SpaceX raptor motors evolved https://imgur.com/a/4w3q3lS
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ortusdux ◴[] No.44636512[source]
I'm not keen on the idea of applying a 'keep subtracting things until it blows up' mentality to fusion reactors.
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bhaak ◴[] No.44636564[source]
The nice thing about fusion reactors is that they don’t blow up but just don’t work anymore.
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soperj ◴[] No.44637080[source]
they have fission reactors that have done that since the 60s (CANDU Reactor). They just don't help you produce nuclear bombs...
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1. philipkglass ◴[] No.44637378[source]
CANDU has low intrinsic nuclear proliferation resistance. It can run on natural uranium, so it's easier to fuel than light water reactors which need enriched uranium, and its online fuel-swapping design means that it's easy to switch to low-burnup operation for generating weapons grade plutonium. Current CANDU power reactors have extensive monitoring to confirm that they are used peacefully, but if e.g. South Korea had a security crisis and decided to pursue a crash nuclear weapons program, world opinion be damned, its CANDU based reactors at Wolseong could be quickly reconfigured for weapons purposes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolseong_Nuclear_Power_Plant

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2. perihelions ◴[] No.44639480[source]
It's topical that India's nuclear weapons program was started up with a Canadian-supplied heavy water reactor (though not CANDU; a not-power-generating type).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIRUS_reactor

> "Canada stipulated, and the U.S. supply contract for the heavy water explicitly specified, that it only be used for peaceful purposes. Nonetheless, CIRUS produced some of India's initial weapons-grade plutonium stockpile,[6] as well as the plutonium for India's 1974 Pokhran-I (Codename Smiling Buddha) nuclear test, the country's first nuclear test.[7]"