Robin van Spaandonk wrote:
If some form of fusion energy is developed, then this could turn out to be a wasted investment, since it assumes that energy distribution is most cheaply accomplished when that energy is electrical.
Plasma fusion would need the electricity grid. It would probably concentrate it even more than present day fission, which is the most concentrated method (with the fewest, largest central generators).
However distribution of fusion fuel is far cheaper, because of the extreme energy density (well, that's what my intuition says anyway ;) Furthermore, distribution of fusion fuel is much more flexible.
With plasma fusion, the fuel could be distributed with 10 or 20 pickup trucks, making one trip per year.
With cold fusion, the fuel will be built into the device, and changed out about as often as battery acid is changed (maybe never during the life of the machine). At first, with leaky, contaminated cells, it may have to be changed out annually. Only a tiny fraction of the fuel would be used up. The rest would be thrown away or recycled.
To put it another way, the machines would have to have macroscopic amounts of fuel, because you cannot install an eyedropper of heavy water and have it reach the whole cell. So, over the working life of the device only a few percent of the fuel will actually be fused. A typical automobile will consume roughly 1 g of D2O per year but I cannot image you could make an engine block + fusion cell with less than ~1 kg of fuel, and why bother?
See my book for details. - Jed
