Re: [cdn-nucl-l] " Teen creates fusion in his Oakland Township home "

[Rod Adams <atomicrod@aol.com>]

Adam:

Even if ITER reaches its goals, it will still be a long way from  
producing useful energy that makes human lives (other than those of  
the contractors directly associated with the project) measurably better.

I will not take the bet, but I do wonder - why bother?

(I know, not very scientific of me.)

Rod

On Nov 22, 2006, at 6:30 PM, Adam McLean wrote:

> Good grief, Jaro.  The sun fuses atoms to produce energy.  Fusion  
> reactions
> involving D and T fuse atoms to produce energy.  Taking it any  
> further than
> that is expecting far more than one would ever realistically hope  
> from the
> media.
>
> Do articles on fission mention that only ½ the energy produced by  
> CANDUs
> comes from fission of U, and the rest from Pu?  No.  Nor would you  
> ever
> expect them to be that accurate.
>
> Re. cost, sure, $1,000 for 1.0E+06 neutrons/sec is cheap.  The DIII- 
> D fusion
> reactor costs $500,000,000 and regularly makes 1.0E16 n/s.  ITER will
> produce ~1.0E20 n/s for $5,000,000,000 (note, the $12.8 billion  
> figure is a
> full lifecycle cost including construction, operation for 20 years,  
> and
> decommissioning.)
>
> The primary goals of ITER are to produce 400 MWth on 40 MW of input  
> power,
> Q=10 for steady periods of up to 500 seconds, and Q=5 for >1,000  
> seconds.
> These are described in detail here:
> www.iter.org/reports.htm
>
> The 'Fusor', while an outstanding science project, and terrific as  
> a neutron
> source and platform for basic plasma science, will never, ever be  
> useful for
> power production.
>
> I believe ITER will reach its goals.  I believe that enough to  
> offer a bet
> of $1 to anyone that doubts that they'll be met within ITER's  
> operating
> lifetime.  Takers?  Jaro? :)
>
> Adam
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: cdn-nucl-l-admin@mailman1.cis.McMaster.CA
> [mailto:cdn-nucl-l-admin@mailman1.cis.McMaster.CA] On Behalf Of  
> Franta,
> Jaroslav
> Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 6:03 AM
> To: Multiple (E-mail)
> Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] " Teen creates fusion in his Oakland Township  
> home "
>
> At least the kid's project cost was a bit more reasonable than the  
> 12.8
> billion dollar ITER reactor at Cadarache in southern France.
>
> And, mercifully, the article avoids making the endlessly repeated  
> phony
> claim that its the "energy source of the sun."
>
> If that were the case, they wouldn't need hundred-million-degree
> temperatures, and they wouldn't need deuterium or tritium.
>
> Of course admitting that its really the energy source of hydrogen  
> bombs,
> doesn't sound nearly as attractive to politicians, the media, and the
> public....
>
> With this kind of hyperbole, we could also claim that, because fission
> reactions are *nuclear*, its also " the power of the Sun and the  
> stars."
>
> Guess we just lack the requisite PR finesse :O)
>
>  Jaro
>
>
>
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