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[asymmetric_implosion]

Ran out of space….

The next solution is hot swapping the pulse power system. That is a great deal of waste and sunk cost per unit. Spark gaps at the 20 kV, 25 kA level cost $1000 per unit in the 1-10 per purchase range. If the machine requires something like 20 switches at higher voltage, say 100 kV switch to be safe and 200 kA per switch, you are talking about something like $5000 per switch at 1-10 units. You need something like 100 switches per day so you could probably get them for 25% of the 1-10 unit cost or $1250 per switch. So each day, you need to buy $125,000 in switches. Caps cost about 25% of the switches so you spend $160K per day on the pulse power alone. Thyratrons are $3500 per unit and you need two hundred units every three days. Again, bulk discount to 25% of single unit you only need $60K per day in switches and another $30K in caps or ~$100K per day on the pulse parts alone. A tech to replace these components costs ~$100K per year including overhead like benefits, pension, etc or $272 per day. You will probably need 4-5 techs so they person cost is minimal. The change over time is a minimum of 1 hr per change at 1 change every three days so you get 71 on hours for 1 off hour. The off hour costs you $100K in parts and people. The cost of electricity in CA is $0.15 kW-hr as a sort of average. The reactor generates 5000 kW at steady state for 71 hrs out of 72 hrs possible. That is 360,000 kW-hrs or $54K. You need to more than double the cost of electricity to make this a cost effective venture as I neglected fuel gas, regulatory compliance, operator pay, facility overhead costs, etc with existing technology. This also neglects any supply chain problems, contracts to purchase parts and people to keep the parts flowing. One might argue that clean energy has other benefits so the gov’t will step in but in the end you are still paying for it. I will admit that one could do better than a 75% discount over single unit price but 10% or so is the best I can imagine. That buys you some space ($27 K per day) but you are barely breaking even all things considered.