Re: Why ITER Will Be In France

Uncle Al <UncleAl0@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:42DD32FA.891451BB@xxxxxxxxxxxxx:

> All, without exception, controlled hot fusion experiments are
> refinements of military hydrodynamic codes for simulated nuclear
> weapon detonation.

Inaccurately so, as H-bomb plasmas are shock heated, and ITER is not.

> Hot fusion as the core of a powerplant is
> ludicrous at face value. Nuclear reactors have 50 years of
> development and are intrinsically stable in operation.

Not the American ones, just the French and Canadian ones. Americans
foolishly chose to derive their civilian nuclear program from military
light water reactors, and the light water nukes are much less stable
than the heavy water ones.

> No fusion reactor edges beyond a bad joke

Not yet, but we'll see if the French can do better. They're very nuke-
savvy.

> A fusion reactor is a barely contained ongoing disaster.

But not a nuclear disaster. Once something goes wrong, the plasma
quenches, and the burning stops. There is no equivalent to the china
syndrome, as is currently happening in Chernobyl. A containment can
easily be built to contain all possible nuclides released by a
conventional explosion.

> Nobody sane
> puts 4 degrees kelvin supercon magnet windings hard by an intense fast
> neutron radiation field plus hard photons with 100 million degrees
> kelvin temps overall.

This is jusy one possible design, and there is no law of physics
prohibiting the use of resistive magnets.

>> Now the NY Times is reporting that ITER will attempt to breed tritium
>> from lithium, hoping to prove that a self-contained fuel cycle is
>> possible. This will require handling radioactive fuel, and dealing
>> with large neutron fluxes.

> It will require huge bales of bull*** and periodic overthrows of
> management, followed by reorganizations and "unanticipated" massive
> budget overruns.

This is the only point you've made correctly, however the escape valve
is simply to abandon the breeding cycle and save that for the next
design iteration.

> France was chosen because a reactor breach would not damage anything
> valued by others.

Don't be so hard on the Frogs. Lafayette diverted British naval
resources, preventing them from reinforcing the Redcoats. Without him
Washington couldn't have won the Revolutionary War.
.

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