On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 , spudboy100 via Everything List < [email protected]> wrote:
> > For either fusion or thorium, or anything else, it's largely, pushed, by > money/cost/price. And political will. > > > Cost killed uranium-235 reactors, not protests, not 3 mile island, nor > Chernobyl, nor Fukashima. For decades France has gotten over 75% of its electricity from nuclear energy and has done so cost effectively and safely, or at least safer than any other power source now in use. Thorium would be even cheaper and safer. > > > Thorium is being worked on by India and may well succeed. But that is > still 10 years away from a "commercial" reactor. Several commercial liquid Thorium reactors could be online in 18 months, perhaps less, if people decided that the future of their civilization depended on building them. In the early 1940s nuclear power was only a remote theoretical possibility that had never actually produced one watt of power, and just a year before that it wasn't possible even theoretically. And yet by the mid 1940s 3 nuclear bombs had been made that produced an astronomical number of watts because people decided that their very survival depended on building them. Requiring an environmental impact statement and other red tape before building the huge isotope separation plants at Oak Ridge would have been unthinkable in 1942. Things can be built very fast if people decide they really REALLY need them. John K Clark > > > Moreover, we could have, as a species, traveled to Mars, if we wanted to, > anytime in the last years. The costs in 1980 currencies would have > approached 1 trillion, in about 10 years of funding, and like the US moon > missions, once we go there and see a dry, stony, planet, the emotional > return on investment, would have been a big yawn. My point is that human > beings are economic apes, as you already know, and we are driven by the > symbolics of everything. It controls or influences our behavior. This is > the way things seem to be. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Clark <[email protected]> > To: everything-list <[email protected]> > Sent: Thu, Aug 27, 2015 1:14 pm > Subject: Re: Tri Alpha Energy > > > On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 spudboy100 via Everything List < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > >> John, I am guessing that these guys are working hard, but achieving >> commercial, nuclear fusion is not in the cards. >> > > It certainly won't be in the cards if nobody even tries. I think Thorium > power would be vastly easier than fusion power but I could be wrong and > these guys are using their own money not government money so I wish them > luck. > > >> > >> It may never be in the cards, as an electricity power source, except as, >> a means of fast interplanetary travel. >> > > I don't follow, how can if work in an > interplanetary > spaceship but not in your local power plant? > > John K Clark > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
