Reply To: Physics Nobel to Big Bangers

[dennisp]

Let’s assume you’re right. That’s 20 years if the world runs entirely on FF. Since FF is so cheap I’d expect the transition to happen pretty quickly, but it won’t be instantaneous. Systems like hydroelectric dams with high sunk costs but low operating costs will probably keep going for a while. It will also take a while to convert transportation.

So let’s say based on known reserves we have 30 years from the time we get the first commercial reactor. That’s a fair amount of time to get new sources of boron.

The first thing we’ll do is look for new reserves in the ground. Seawater has already been mentioned. Beyond that, asteroid mining is easily economical when you can get to space for $30/lb. The solar system has millions of times the resources of the Earth; once we can get out there cheaply our resource issues will go away for a long time to come.