Reply To: Focus fusion and transportation

[Aeronaut]

Brian H wrote:

I’m not sure if there is any problem in stacking FF modules, but, e.g., a ‘cube’ of 10x10x10 units would be 1,000, generating 5GW, and would take up perhaps 100′ x 140′ on the ground, plus a certain allowance for internal access corridors and cooling ducting. Connectors and transformers, etc., would occupy more acreage. But it seems like a viable alternative to the side-by-side arrangements envisaged by Rematog.

Of course, co-opting existing plant space being mothballed, etc., has advantages, but if stacking is possible, then all sorts of options open up. Imagine an FF hi-rise or two on the outskirts of a medium-sized city, supplying all commercial, industrial, and residential power. It could even be load-sensitive, since stopping and restarting individual modules to make 5MW changes in output would (I assume) be relatively easy.

To speculate even more widely, embed banks of modules in the ground, in holes left by emptying out landfill sites (by reducing them to valuable elemental form and syngas with plasma-torching). Etc.

That would be really cool to get a module that small. I have a hunch that engineering dogma and fire codes are going to make first generation power station modules more along the size I listed above. There really should be no reason not to be able to stack units, as long as structure and magnetic shielding (if needed) are properly planned. Passive magnetic shielding may be why Rematog envisioned it the way he did, since doubling the distance quarters the field strength. Even if they do have to be arranged horizontally, we have a LOT of large empty factories around here with roughly a million square feet each and ceilings beginning at 14 feet high.

High rise brought the image of an old power plant to mind. Imagine how high you could stack units given an 80 or 100 foot ceiling. In new construction, the FF modules could become an integral part of the building’s structure, much like stacker cranes in “automated” warehouses.

As long as the fuel is heated, load corrections in 5MW chunks could be sensed and executed in less than a millisecond- essentially instantly. Physical relays would probably make it more like a second or two if they are used.

I just changed my profile’s site link to point to the url I got yesterday, Subatomic Precision. I’m working it up to be the 5 to 10 page minisite that I send politicians, reporters, and editors to. Page one is up. Comments are welcome.