To put this in context - they are basically doing real-world bitcoin mining. Fusion tech has been on the horizon for some time, the limiting factor has been that capital cost to build plants far outweigh what electricity can be sold for commercially. (Note there are other much better funded competitors to marathon in the space, in fact marathon is fairly tiny)
However this this approach flips the script, since this gold yield represents basically a 2x to electricity cost (current rates)...so if fusion electricity production normally would require a 20 year payback, this would bring it down to 10 years (obviously price of gold going up would accelerate that)...at this level it may start to attract investment
There are few headwinds though:
Guesstimates are about $8B to build a 1GW fusion plant
Will require substantial yearly mercury inventory
Will require substantial mercury contamination solution for environmental protection
Decays into other radioactive elements that will require 18-20 year containment
So although an interesting approach, this isn't going flood the market with gold....
To put this in context - they are basically doing real-world bitcoin mining. Fusion tech has been on the horizon for some time, the limiting factor has been that capital cost to build plants far outweigh what electricity can be sold for commercially. (Note there are other much better funded competitors to marathon in the space, in fact marathon is fairly tiny)
However this this approach flips the script, since this gold yield represents basically a 2x to electricity cost (current rates)...so if fusion electricity production normally would require a 20 year payback, this would bring it down to 10 years (obviously price of gold going up would accelerate that)...at this level it may start to attract investment
There are few headwinds though:
So although an interesting approach, this isn't going flood the market with gold....