thedailygreen.com — China has tossed down a $1.4 billion bet on the world energy roulette wheel. China's stake is 10% of a research project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, trying to unlock the secret to nuclear fusion, a potentially boundless, clean and cheap form of energy.
Jan 8, 2008 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountJan 9, 2008
Tokamaks are a waste of time. They work, and ITER should be able to meet it's goals of a sustained 500KW electrical output. That said, the reactor vessel and neutron blankets will be come highly radioactive. It's short-lived, to the extent that 40 years will be long enough to cool so as to allow the vessel (stainless steel) to be recycled.That said, there are other, more compelling designs available. The late Dr. Bussard's Polywell design, or Eric Lerner's focus fusion device both have zero radioactivity in both their reaction agents and products, and convert the power directly to electricity with about 90% efficiency. The AEC in the US is just as beholden to large corporate interests (Big Science) as any other industry, and has systematically blocked all forms of inertial electrostatic confinement systems. ITER is going to be a waste of money in the long run.Yes, I know about Dave's 1994 paper, but even he acknowledges that there are ways around the electron heating losses with exotic reactor geometries.
zurahnJan 10, 2008
The tokamak fusion reactor was somewhat able to do sustainable fusion, but it only got 60% energy return, so it couldn't even come close to breaking even. And while better than an explosion, it wasn't exactly stable.
p5ychoJan 10, 2008
It could be due to the long & short scales (<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales ...</a>
principleJan 12, 2008
If they could find an even more mind-boggling way of boiling water, they will go for it instead of the most obvious one. They are even thinking about going to the Moon to mine helium-3. All that, while rivers of lava are poring right here on Earth! We already know how to build geothermal power stations. So why are we constantly trying to do the impossible? Like the hydrogen powered cars instead of developing an electric car with better supercapacitors. I guess it is because if we had all the power we needed, we would be more prosperous, and our masters would have less control over us. This is why instead of solving the problem we are presented with an even more complex puzzle to solve.
principleJan 13, 2008
<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell</a>