Yeah, that was something else ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" <hellomahog...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, September 6, 2010 12:27:00 AM Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Subcritical accelerator driven thorium nuclear reactor
Did you see the show where they debuted the plasma powered engine? On Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 8:35 AM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: Ha-ha! I was watching one of the great science shows on cable recently. I think it was "The Universe" on The History Channel. They had an ep on deep space probes and discussed ion powered ships. The program indicated they're getting better all the time, and that in the next ten - twenty years, we may be able to see a severalfold increase in the speed of probes using ion power. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter" < martinbaxt...@gmail.com > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, September 5, 2010 6:15:36 AM Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Subcritical accelerator driven thorium nuclear reactor Aside from the battery, I'm not seeing anything wrong with that idea... On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 11:00 PM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: Somewhere in my old house in Fort Worth is a schematic of an ion drive I did in second grade, after watching an ep of "Star Trek" (had to be "Spock's Brain"), and reading about electrolytes in my encyclopedia set. I'd read about how cesium, when immersed in water, would produce ions in solution, and I'd read about theories for Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), the idea of using fusion power to drive plasma as a source of motion. Then there was that Trek ep where they said the aliens who took Spock's brain used ion power, which Kirk said was even beyond Federation tech. So, sure that I'd stumbled on a major secret, I took pen to paper. I drew a cutaway of the Jupiter Two from Lost in Space. Inside was a giant water tank. Sitting next to the tank, like a coal scuttle on a stem locomotive, was a big pile of cesium bricks--just sitting there. Next to them were some crazy robot arms with gloved "hands" (think of all the robot extremities as depicted in old cartoons). The robot hands--two of them--would take turns dumping cesium bricks into the water tank. Attached to the tank was a big A battery and wiring so that the ions in solution could be driven to one side of the tank by the negative pole of the battery. I then had what was for all the world a tailpipe sticking out the side of the ship, through which the electrons would shoot into space. Of course, my eight year old self was certain I'd just solved the problem of both ion drive and FTL travel. To this day I remember how excited I was at what I thought I'd created! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" < hellomahog...@gmail.com > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, September 4, 2010 4:02:26 PM Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Subcritical accelerator driven thorium nuclear reactor The truly futuristic stuff is starting to appear. Once people completely move away from the big government thinking on energy I think the flood gates will open with new ideas. On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 9:20 AM, Martin Baxter < martinbaxt...@gmail.com > wrote: Took them long enough. One of my college instructors had a similar thought back in the late 70s. A shame he's passed on. On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 8:04 AM, Mr. Worf < hellomahog...@gmail.com > wrote: Here are details of the subcritical accelerator driven thorium nuclear reactor designed by Nobel Laureate Carlo Rubbia. This reactor was given a supportive article by the UK Telegraph. It has been extensively studied for over 15 years and is expected to have half the cost of existing light water reactors and burn up almost all of the nuclear fuel. The Norwegian group Aker Solutions has bought Dr Rubbia’s patent for the thorium fuel-cycle, and is working on his design for a proton accelerator at its UK operation. They are raising 100 million pounds ($150 million USD) for the next stage of an estimated 2 billion pound ($3 billion USD) project to develop the first commercial unit. If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on Reddit , or StumbleUpon . Thanks Supporting Advertising Business Success How to Make Money Executive Jobs Paid Surveys Thank You -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
