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emordnilap
Joined: 05 Sep 2007
Posts: 14597
Location: Houǝsʇlʎ' ᴉʇ,s ɹǝɐllʎ uoʇ ʍoɹʇɥ ʇɥǝ ǝɟɟoɹʇ' pou,ʇ ǝʌǝu qoʇɥǝɹ˙
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 Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:34 am Post subject: "It's safe, it's clean" - and soon. Really? |
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| Quote: | | At Google's Solve For X, Charles Chase describes what his team has been working on: a trailer-sized fusion power plant that turns cheap and plentiful hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) into helium plus enough energy to power a small city. It's safe, it's clean, and Lockheed is promising an operational unit by 2017 with assembly line production to follow, enabling everything from unlimited fresh water to engines that take spacecraft to Mars in one month instead of six. |
More here.
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I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker |
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JohnB
Joined: 22 May 2006
Posts: 6456
Location: Beautiful sunny West Wales!
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| Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | No more oil, no more coal, no more nuclear, and not even any solar or wind or hydro will be necessary (unless you're into that sort of thing): fusion has the potential to produce as much affordable clean power as we'll ever need, for the entire world. |
Won't that rather upset a lot of powerful companies and middle eastern countries? I thought ideas that were liable to put them out of business were quietly disappeared.
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John
Eco-Hamlets UK - Small sustainable neighbourhoods |
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emordnilap
Joined: 05 Sep 2007
Posts: 14597
Location: Houǝsʇlʎ' ᴉʇ,s ɹǝɐllʎ uoʇ ʍoɹʇɥ ʇɥǝ ǝɟɟoɹʇ' pou,ʇ ǝʌǝu qoʇɥǝɹ˙
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| Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 4:03 pm Post subject: |
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Nail on head John. It's only an idea.
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I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker |
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Pepperman
Joined: 10 Oct 2010
Posts: 772
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| Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 12:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Chase didn't give a whole lot more technical detail, but he seemed confident in predicting a 100mW prototype by 2017, with commercial 100mW systems available by 2022 |
I look forward to being able to run my digital watch off a trailer-sized fusion power plant in 2022...  |
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clv101
Site Admin
Joined: 24 Nov 2005
Posts: 8694
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| Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 12:44 pm Post subject: Re: "It's safe, it's clean" - and soon. Really? |
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| emordnilap wrote: | | Quote: | | At Google's Solve For X, Charles Chase describes what his team has been working on: a trailer-sized fusion power plant that turns cheap and plentiful hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) into helium plus enough energy to power a small city. |
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This is quite ridiculous.
Deuterium exists in enormous quantities in sea water where it forms 0.03% by weight of the hydrogen but tritium exists naturally in only tiny amounts generated by cosmic rays, and decays away with a half life of 12.3 years, so that there is only about 3.6kg of naturally generated tritium at any one time distributed all around the planet. The Oil Drum
Tritium is one of the least plentiful substances on the planet, and likely the limiting factor of fusion rollout.
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emordnilap
Joined: 05 Sep 2007
Posts: 14597
Location: Houǝsʇlʎ' ᴉʇ,s ɹǝɐllʎ uoʇ ʍoɹʇɥ ʇɥǝ ǝɟɟoɹʇ' pou,ʇ ǝʌǝu qoʇɥǝɹ˙
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| Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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Any takers?
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I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker |
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