Adrian Hurt:
>There is, of course, one minor problem. Who is building all these fusion
>plants? The TL15 world is going to supply (a) itself, and (b) the highest
>outside bidder, in that order. I'd expect the going price to be slightly
>more than that of a TL14 plant of similar power; what you're paying for is
>the smaller size.
You are losing your grip on reality again. Check the prices in the MT
books: TL15, 250MW = MCr2.7, TL14, 250MW = MCr5.4.
With that kind of profit margin, SOMEONE will be making them for export.
Keep in mind that these power plant prices are lower than real world plants
by a factor of 100 or so. (Good rule of thumb is $1 per watt. Or it was a
good rule of thumb ten years ago.)
If your merchants aren't bright enough to see a chance to make LOTS and LOTS
and MORE LOTS of money, then they will probably be driven out of business
by the one genius who sees that this is a way to make more money than everyone
else in the universe combined. {"It is rumoured that he {Gregory Pelton}
owns the thirty-light-year-wide rough sphere called human space, that he
earns his income by renting it out." --- "Flatlander", by Larry Niven}
Anyone who couldn't make money with something like TL15 fusion plants is too
dumb to pour sand from a boot with printed instructions on the bottom of the
heel.
---Steve