History Learner
Well-known member
Let's say Mike McCormack is able to win re-election in 1980 and solidify the Pro-Fusion lobbying force in Congress he was in the process of building IOTL that had already been able to pass the Magnetic Fusion Energy Engineering Act of 1980. With a strong force to push for Fusion, it's likely you'd see the Center for Fusion Engineering be created while projects like Princeton’s Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory’s Mirror Fusion Test Reactor get a chance to actually operate, instead of shut down on the day they were supposed in the example of the latter. Others, like Oak Ridge's Elmo Bumpy Torus preliminary design for a 1200 MW magnetic fusion power plant would actually get built, same for Princeton's Compact Ignition Tokamak (CIT). It's important to note that the Reagan Administration wasn't opposed at all to Nuclear Fusion, indeed setting high funding for it during the first term, but said funding began to languish without a unified bloc in Congress to support the costs and especially so with declining oil prices in the second half of the decade. if McCormack had been able to stay and continue his work, combined with the openness of Reagan to said work, I think there would've been more than sufficient political will to see support for the costs continue and thus keep the United States on track for a working reactor by 2000. Such was stipulated by the previously mentioned legislation, which used 1976 projections by the ERDA to establish its time frame. With a decade of refinement of designs and more testing, commercialization starts around ATL 2010 and by ATL 2021 the adoption of nuclear fusion power plants into power grids and other facets of energy usage is well underway.
What likely happens from here? Carbon emissions in the 2010-2021 ATL period are likely significantly lower, probably putting us on a trajectory to avoid the worst of Global Warming by achieving the 1.5 degree target. Russia and the Middle East will probably be more unstable, however, with decreasing oil funds.
What likely happens from here? Carbon emissions in the 2010-2021 ATL period are likely significantly lower, probably putting us on a trajectory to avoid the worst of Global Warming by achieving the 1.5 degree target. Russia and the Middle East will probably be more unstable, however, with decreasing oil funds.