Re: Article: Nuclear fusion plasma problem tackled

Just Cocky wrote:
On 23 May 2006 12:52:19 -0700, dezakin@xxxxxxx wrote:

Just Cocky wrote:
On 22 May 2006 14:16:42 -0700, dezakin@xxxxxxx wrote:

Just Cocky wrote:
"Nuclear fusion could become a more viable energy solution with the
discovery of way to prevent super-hot gases from causing damage within
reactors."

No it won't.


What the heck, the guys solved a tough problem and nuclear fusion
doesn't become more viable than before?

No, because its still magnetic confinement fusion. The best we have is
an interesting device that produces some nuclear reactions for a short
time.


You still don't get it! The guys solved a major hurdle. That's all
there is to it. And magnetic confinement fusion is just fine. That's
what the ITER people are after, after all.


First, fission is easier


For now.

Until we run out of uranium and thorium. Sticking a bunch of the same
sort of stuff in one space and just watching it get hot is a lot easier
than squeezing nuclei close enough together to overcome electromagnetic
repulsion to fuse. The pressures are immense.


But with those immense pressures comes huge rewards. I'm all in favor
of fission-based nuclear power but fusion is way more efficient and
has the ability to produce all the energy the world wants pretty much
forever.

Yeah, and fission will only last about 25000 years on uranium in the
once through cycle, or 100 million with breeders. This is like
comparing lake michigan with the oort cloud for water supply for a
family of four.

Its even more efficient to spiral gas down a black hole and collect the
X-rays off the accresion disk... 50% mass to energy conversion. But we
arent there in terms of technology or need yet. Same with fusion.

We will have cheap solar power long before a competitive controlled
fusion reactor for energy production, barring some genuinely novel
innovation.

safer


That's just bollocks.

In fission, you have medium energy neutrons scattered around until they
are caught by other nuclei. In D-T fusion you get even more neutrons at
higher energies, in fact thats where most of the energy goes.


Yes, for a picosecond compared to fission's thousands of years of
radiation.

Uh, half life of neutrons are more like 15 minutes, during which time
they can just wander where they want.

Where do you think the neutrons go? They stick to stuff you see. These
are 10million eV + neutrons at that, bigger than the weak things you
get out of a fizzling uranium nucleus.

Stick anything with a neutron capture cross section that isn't darn
close to zero in the path and you get radioactive garbage that you
can't touch for some time.

.