Reply To: Wealth of Nations, and Economics of Abundance

[Glenn Millam]

I see FF as being a good technology for MagLev trains, but not airplanes. Take away the small amount of neutrons produced by FF, and you still have a lot of x-rays to shield for, so this makes carrying onboard reactors weight-prohibitive for aircraft. However, with maglev, you don’t have that problem, and using similar technology that nuclear-powered subs use, building a safe reactor is not hard. Which brings up ships. As Appan points out, FF would be ideal for shipping.

I’m a big believer in FF-powered Maglev. There are many problems with airplane-based travel. What people like about it is that you can get from point A to point B fast. The downsides are many. First, jets are one of the main contributors to global dimming. Next, airplanes have to be light, so they will probably always need a conventional chemical-based fuel. Third, there are only so many accommodations and people you can put on a plane. The A380, the 787 Dreamliner and the latest 747’s are an attempt to address this. But what if you could zoom from Baltimore to New York at 600+ kph, have a private office to work in while you were going there, and when you got there, you drove your own (hopefully EEStor-based electric) car away from the station to your meeting? It’s only possible with maglev. A train can be as big or as small as you need it to be, and can carry anything.