Power Technology

[Klause]

In the WWII and post era the US developed a nuclear technology capable of producing safe power - a fission reactor that can't overheat and meltdown like Chernobyl of Fukushima.

This technology, a molten salt reactor, sat mothballed for decades...

Oak Ridge developed an MSBR, then wrote a paper on a more advanced version... Yet it was ignored.

Today, China is accelerating their development of MSR technology, see: https://neutronbytes.com/2018/01/07/recent-developments-in-advanced-reactors-in-china-russia/ https://neutronbytes.com/2018/01/07/recent-developments-in-advanced-reactors-in-china-russia/

Canada has it's own stake in this through Terrestrial Energy: https://www.terrestrialenergy.com https://www.terrestrialenergy.com


Two years ago (late 2016) Russia brought online it's BN-800 reactor plant... 880MW of sodium cooled nuclear power and one of the first large-scale Generation IV nuclear plants in the world.


Liquid salt reactors have almost no waste, and inherently stop overheat conditions. The Americans mothballed the technology as they deemed it too expensive / complicated compared to water cooled reactor designs... especially since they were at the time trying to build super compact, high efficiency reactors for submarines and aircraft carriers - simply adapting that technology to land based facilities.


Meanwhile, https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/280265-mit-plans-new-fusion-reactor-that-could-actually-generate-power MiT SPARC is developing a nuclear fusion plant that they expect to have in a power production state by 2025 (6) years from now.


Let's not forget about https://www.iter.org/mach iTer , The world's first high output Tokomak reactor. They are hoping to generate 500MW of energy output, for 50MW of heating input...

China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States are the leaders of that project.


There's also a competing technology called a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell Polywell reactor that shows promise.


So, considering that http://www.industrytap.com/knowledge-doubling-every-12-months-soon-to-be-every-12-hours/3950 total, complete, human knowledge now doubles every 13 months and is on a massive accelerating curve, why aren't we spending the money we're wasting on already obsolete solar and wind farms on technology that can actually power the future.

We're literally a decade or two away from clean, unlimited power.


It is an amazing time to be alive. The technology, science, and abilities we have are amazing.


Would any of our parents have imagined we could build a neutron collector on a 3d printer in our home office...

That we could steer and navigate 3,000 meters under ground with no wires.

That your cell phone has more computing power than a 5 story "super computer" in the 40s...

That we can map and change genomes. We can build anything. The future really is limitless.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

We're literally a decade or two away from clean, unlimited power.

You might want to check on the history of that statement, I believe it has been used a few times before.

Otherwise, I'm optimistic on the energy front.

As I understand it, Uranium reactors of the type used were chosen, at the exclusion of better options for power generation, was the need for enriched Uranium for nuclear weapons.

[Klause]

You might want to check on the history of that statement, I believe it has been used a few times before.

Otherwise, I'm optimistic on the energy front.

As I understand it, Uranium reactors of the type used were chosen, at the exclusion of better options for power generation, was the need for enriched Uranium for nuclear weapons.

I chose it specifically because of its history.


I think by 2050 energy won't be a problem... IF we can harness the stars energy what is there to stop us?


And you're right... Fission technology developed and deployed by the US and the USSR was designed to produce weapons fuel.

Funny how arbitrary choices by those in power have huge consequences down the road.

[the big wheel]

The only thing stopping advancements has been oil industry buying off politicians.

We better get with the program and understand that oil is not the future.

[furrowtickler]

The only thing stopping advancements has been oil industry buying off politicians.

We better get with the program and understand that oil is not the future.

The majority know full well oil is not the future but we can’t throw oil out before we get to the future . Klause pointed out , new and renewed energy is within our grasp . We need to shift the focus of politics from hating the oil industry and wasting time trying to kill it. Embrace the new technology and let oil run its course without the wealth killing carbon tax .
Fossil fuel will wean itself without wealth distribution tax .

[AlbertaFarmer5]

The only thing stopping advancements has been oil industry buying off politicians.

Ah, well, that explains all the fuss about renewables lately.

At least now you have answered the age old question, who would have guessed, that the fact that fossil fuels continue to reign, has nothing to do with their cost, energy density, safety, reliability almost endless supply, ability to be stored, used at all temperatures, etc etc.

[the big wheel]

The majority know full well oil is not the future but we can’t throw oil out before we get to the future . Klause pointed out , new and renewed energy is within our grasp . We need to shift the focus of politics from hating the oil industry and wasting time trying to kill it. Embrace the new technology and let oil run its course without the wealth killing carbon tax .
Fossil fuel will wean itself without wealth distribution tax .

The biggest hate is the hate for clean renewables. Don't hate oil we just need to see more from it.

[jazz]

Once again politicians miss the message. If Trudeau would stand up and say there is this technology coming down the line and we need to invest in it, then people could get behind that. But nope, its the wishy washy tax and redistribute invest in meagre tech that doesn't work here and guilt shame everyone else not getting on the bandwagon.

Everyone knows that in 50 years, fusion or some similar tech will be mastered. But in the meantime, does it make sense to invest in another temporary energy source like wind and solar. That just makes it more expensive to transition to a final solution. Once fusion is mastered, there is no other technology to go to. We simply just refine that one endlessly then. Windmills and solar panels have rare earth elements in them and shouldn't be wasted on a temporary fix.

[jimmy]

Walk into room full of leftist treehuggers and mention nuclear and tell me how that goes. But let’s instead build eagle killers and cover the earth with solar panels and in 20 years or so do it all over again. Plus build big ugly hydro lines that run for hundreds of miles from a central energy source. There is the technology out there for these mini nukes that run on depleted fuel rods with no cooling water needed and they can be placed where ever power is needed so those giant expensive ugly hydro lines don’t need to be built but no nuclear is bad end of story. I guess with less hydro lines wind mills and solar panel, coal plants and other infrastructure there is also less good union jobs so **** the environment instead.

[Klause]

Once again politicians miss the message. If Trudeau would stand up and say there is this technology coming down the line and we need to invest in it, then people could get behind that. But nope, its the wishy washy tax and redistribute invest in meagre tech that doesn't work here and guilt shame everyone else not getting on the bandwagon.

Everyone knows that in 50 years, fusion or some similar tech will be mastered. But in the meantime, does it make sense to invest in another temporary energy source like wind and solar. That just makes it more expensive to transition to a final solution. Once fusion is mastered, there is no other technology to go to. We simply just refine that one endlessly then. Windmills and solar panels have rare earth elements in them and shouldn't be wasted on a temporary fix.

Not true... after fusion... we still have to come up with a dyson sphere.

A Type II civilization has to be able to harness and store the entire energy output of their star.


For interstellar travel we need to find far more efficient propulsion systems yet... and far more dense energy chemistry.

10 years ago FDR (Fusion Drive Rocket) was in the realm of SciFi.

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/250836-nasa-funded-startup-aims-build-fusion-powered-rockets Today, we're building them.

20 years from now ion pulse drives might be close to existence.

In 50 - 100 years we may have FTL.