[rashidas]

The link I added was just a discussion of the pros and cons of recycling spent fuel rods. The real issue is can the spent fuel rods from Fukushima Reactor #4 be removed safely, stored and sent soemwhere else for recycling. If somethings goes wrong nuclear energy will be rejected by public opinion.This will also negatively effect fusion development.

[rashidas]

Here is a link to a video on Chernobyl 20+ years after the accident. The take home message I got was that dangerous levels of radiation remain many years after the release of radioactive elements. Similar problems will be present in Fukushima, Japan:

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-chernobyl/

[rashidas]

I visited the Chernobyl Museum in Kiev, Ukraine, a few years ago. There is a photo gallery of volunteers who went to Chernobyl to contain the radiation from the nuclear power plant after the core melted. Most of these volunteers died of radiation exposure and cancer. The Chernobyl accident contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union 5 years later.

[rashidas]

Waste Heat Recovery: Has the issue of waste heat been addressed adequately in the design of a working aneutronic reactor? So much energy being produced in a very small space will make waste heat a significant issue so I believe this question should be addressed now. There are many potential uses for this heat, including food processing, space heating, horticulture and aquaculture as examples.

[rashidas]

Nuclear Fission’s troubles mean bad news for obtaining financial support for fusion power. Even though readers who follow focus fusion’s progress understand the difference between fission and fusion, the general public probably does not. This will make it more difficult for aneutronic fusion to get the financial support it needs to make aneutronic fusion a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

[rashidas]

Death Knell for the Nuclear Power Industry:

The recent disaster in Japan will be very bad for the nuclear power industry around the world. Just as Chernobyl did 25 years ago, this disaster will brand fission power as dangerous and unreliable in the public mind, regardless of the efforts of the nuclear industry to explain it away. I doubt that any banks, insurance companies or other financial institutions will support building more nuclear power plants. Only centralized autocratic governments like China can continue to build them, and public opinion will be against it in any populated area.

This disaster will also be bad for aneutronic fusion, as fusion (which to the ignorant public sounds like fission) will be tarred with the same brush. This will make fund raising for fusion research even more difficult than before the disaster.

[rashidas]

How many years would it take to satisfy the objectives listed above? Once these questions are addressed how much power would a prototype power plant produce in megawatts? Let’s assume 5 million dollars would be available for this project.

[rashidas]

Let’s use the proposed $5 million dollar donation as a starting point. Would this amount be enough to build and run a 10 MW power plant – either base load or peaking?

[rashidas]

Any surplus heat from Aneutronic Fusion need not be wasted. Instead it can be used directly for space heating in winter and air conditioning in summer. Many European cities have central space heating systems. It can also be used to heat/cool greenhouses and for aquaculture, especially in cold climates. If FF is safe enough to be built in urban/suburban areas space heating and cooling would be both easy and economical and would improve the economics of a FF power plant.

[rashidas]

Nice job! Keep up the good work.

Rashidas

[rashidas]

New Article on fusion in the journal Science (AAAS), 23 February 2007, Vol. 315, pp 1092-1095. Although the focus of the article is on producing high energy neutrons cheaply it does discuss fusion for energy production. It also mentions the problems of containing the plasma and deterioration of containment vessels. A must read for fusion groupies.

[rashidas]

Excuse my ignorance but are there alternatives to boron as a fuel for focus fusion? In case of boron scarcity can isotopes of beryllium, carbon or nitrogen be used instead?

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