Reply To: EmDrive + Focus Fusion = Space Access for all?

[Glenn Millam]

This is a good question. As to the availability of boron, the US has pretty good supplies from rastorite and tincal in the southwestern United States. What I wonder is the cost per MW/hr of pB11 fuel, namely, decaborane. My quick search on the subject brought up a price of US $500 per gram. If a 5 MW reactor uses 24 pounds of fuel a year, the cost on that fuel is$5,443,108.60. 1 MW production over a year costs $1,088,621.70. 1 MW/hr therefore is $124. Another quick search on the cost of coal per MW/hr derived a number of $11. Is this right? If it is, it makes focus fusion sound really expensive.

I got my price for decaborane from some medical website. This may be excessively inflated, as anyone who ever had a $7 tylenol in a hospital will know. It also may not be the correct form of decaborane, too, using B10 or something.

Here are the links.

http://www.medicalisotopes.com/Product_Details.asp?find=3967

http://www.nucleartourist.com/basics/costs.htm