Reply To: Mind, Spirit, Science connection?

[redsnapper]

I don’t understand where you’d put a He cooling cycle, anyway? If the best picture of the reactor core (including X-ray converter and Rogowski coil) is what’s on the LPP page, then my initial concerns about cooling the core stand. It’s not that big! There’s no way to remove that kind of thermal energy from the inside (because that’s where the plasma is). But if you wait till the heat gets to the outside of the onion, you don’t need an X-ray transperent cooling fluid, because the X-ray’s are already gone; therefore you may as well use water impingement (something cheaper than He, I presume). In any event, either you can cool it adequately or you can’t, and the decision of whether to actually use that waste heat is an economic one. (Except if Henning’s fears are realized, the economics require it, because otherwise you can’t break even.) I’d certainly prefer to remain optimistic, however. 🙂