PSA

A few recent conversations with different people prompted me to make a quick post on nuclear fusion energy. if nothing else, I can link to this when people have questions instead of reinventing the wheel every time I’m asked about it. Sorry if you don’t care about this (even though you really should). Several of my friends routinely ask me questions about fusion and nuclear energy in general, this isn’t really for them since curiosity is a good thing. This is for the people that come at me with malformed ideas about how the process works, accusing me of supporting destroying the planet or some asinine crap like that.

FAQ –

OMG Nuclear energy is DIRTY you will pollute the planet to death you hatemonger!!1:

This is not at all the case. The waste product of the reaction is inert helium, which can be safely stored and shipped off to be put to any number of industrial uses. Nuclear fusion produces neutrons, which will “activate” any surrounding materials (such as the husk of the reactor), making them radioactive. After 100 years of operation, the amount of radioactive material produced would be negligable compared to 100 years of operation of a standard nuclear powerplant. The effect on the environment of fuel-burning powerplants (coal, oil, gas, etc) after 100 years is massive compared to the small amount of material that would have to be contained. The neutrons emitted can in many cases be re-used to make more fuel for the reaction, thusly increasing the reactor efficiency.

Nuclear power plants MALT DOWN and kill everyone for miles!

It’s not possible for a hot nuclear fusion powerplant to melt down. In a conventional nuclear fission powerplant like we have today, a chain reaction can occur if too much fuel gets too close to too much other fuel. The name of the game is containing the reaction to keep it stable. if the containment fails, *bad things* happen. In modern powerplants it is very difficult for this to occur, but technically it’s still possible through sabotage or whatever else (see also: ninjas). In nuclear fusion however, the situation is reversed. the fuel doesn’t want to react with other fuel, and it actually takes a 12.5 shit-tons of energy (shit-ton is an english unit) to even get the reaction to happen. there’s no possibility of a race-away situation where containment is lost and everyone dies. If containment is lost, the reaction just stops. There will never be a nuclear meltdown with a fusion powerplant. The big problem with getting fusion to work right now is that we can’t get more energy out of the reaction than we put into it. Current research is aimed at increasing the efficiency to get positive output from reactors.

Nuclear power fuel is radioactiuve and kills Bambi

The fuel for fusion reactors is deuterium and/or tritium. these are just heavy isotopes of hydrogen found in nature (Seawater). Tritium is the most desirable for fusion reactors and is typically extracted from the waste water of conventional nuclear fission powerplants. Yes, it basically burns off waste from other nuclear power plants. radioactive materials need to be handled during the extraction of tritium from this waste water, but tritium itself is not terribly harmful. Also, tritium is used in nuclear weapons. So the more tritium we convince countries to supply to be burned for as fuel in fusion plants means less is available for use in weapons.

If you value the envoironment and the planet at large, you really should support nuclear fusion. It has nothing to do with current “conventional” nuclear power plants. It is safer and cleaner than most oil/coal/gas powerplants. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

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  1. October 18th, 2006 at 12:40 | #1

    Why Igg no cold fusion?

    • October 18th, 2006 at 12:46 | #2

      cold fusion is still mostly smoke and mirrors. there aren’t currently any real candidates for it. It’s a cool idea and I’d like to see it persued, but I don’t think it will bear fruit.

      • October 18th, 2006 at 13:25 | #3

        I saw that movie The Apostle. Val Kilmer says cold fusion is a go. Why would Val lie to us?

        • October 18th, 2006 at 13:31 | #4

          haven;t you seen Top Secret? he;s a secret agent. you never know what he’d lie about. he’s a wiley one.

  2. October 18th, 2006 at 16:04 | #5

    Pretty sure one of those conversations wasn’t with me…cause all I remember is pants and skirts and heads and feet and…..well…you get the idea!

    ;P

  3. October 18th, 2006 at 19:39 | #6

    Hehe. The other day, Slashdot ran an article about a 50 MW nuclear plant to be installed on a barge, floating on top of the permafrost somewhere in northern Siberia.

    People freaked the fuck out. “zomg how can they put that on a boat?!?! like what if it goes in teh water?

    First of all, 50 megawatts is tiny. It’s a small plant that’s just enough to supplement a small outpost of civilization located way way far out on the power grid. When I interned at $ELECTRIC_COMPANY, we put in a 1385 MW plant. Would have put in a second, but the locals near the second proposed site had already had a bad experience with atomic power back in the 40’s. They got a coal plant instead, and now they’re bitching about endangered clams or something.

    Second, putting an arctic power plant on a barge is way smarter than going to all the trouble of sinking pilings, heaping up tons of gravel, and otherwise ensuring that the plant never leaks so much heat as to melt the permafrost it’s sitting on. Once you melt the permafost you’re sitting on, you *do* go in teh water.

    Third, the navies of the world have been putting reactorson boats for ages now, and they’re way bigger than 50 MW.

    So in summary: GUH. People get way too worked up about shit.

    • October 19th, 2006 at 11:54 | #7

      oh noes!! Sub-mareins in teh watar!!! halp!!!

      yeah. People know shockingly little about nuclear power. They’ve heard about Hiroshima and Chernobyl and think they’re equipped with all the knowledge neccecary to assert expert opinions on current nuclear power technology. And to throw around their opinions as “educated”. With all these geniuses out there, it’s a wonder nuclear engineers can get a job!!

      People everywhere get way too worked up about shit that “somebody somewhere” had a bad experience with. And it’s too bad because it really hinders progress. Granted, nuclear power has a bad rep from some *unfortunate event* back in the day… but it’s asinine to assume powerplant construction has remained the same since then.

      And all this is just about fission. They go on to apply the same (for lack of a better word) superstitions they have about fission onto fusion, just because they’re both omgnuclear. Unless I’m mistaken there were zero deaths associated with three mile island. yet nearly 4000 people die each year from accidental drowning. we need to stop bashing nuclear power, and ban water. It’s clearly more dangerous than nuclear radiation.

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