Talk-Polywell.org

Sorry for imprecision about propane (which reminds me i have to start the grill) and some form of natural gas. All I'm saying is that we have alternatives to petroleum that appear to be much more plentiful than was thought just a couple years ago when the peak oil bandwagon started rolling.

how hard is it to convert a gasoline engine to run on propane? I don't think it's terribly hard. given the fact that massive reserves of shale gas have been found under the midwest, as well as under France, I think a switch to natural gas will precede peak oil doomsday.

As you may be aware, there was a reactor in Gabon at a place called Oklo which was decommissioned some years back. The radioactive waste was left in situ exposed to ground water. Most significantly, transport of radioactive isotopes did not render the surrounding countryside a sterile wasteland. The...

100GW? That sounds a little big. I looked at the web page and it looks a little Pollyanna-esque. So, instead of using huge freakin' lasers to do inertial containment of DT fuel pellets, they use heavy ion beams. Since heavy ion beams aren't particularly new, there's been plenty of time for inertial ...

This is my interpretation of public service announcements when radon became an issue. People started building tighter houses with fewer air leaks and converting unfinished basements for additional living space. This was after the energy shocks of the 1970s. In residential settings, the radon comes o...

Is radon from coal ash then also a significant problem? How would it compare to mine tailings for the same energy production? Not radon, uranium. My understanding is that trace amounts of uranium are distributed in coal deposits. The process of burning releases the uranium from the coal. The uraniu...

It's my private opinion (uncluttered by any kind of factual confirmation), that nuclear designs were excluded from consideration after the mid-70s on the sole basis that they "sound risky." For instance, fast neutron reactors sound risky, because the layman doesn't think reactors should be in a hurr...

If you want to burn up actinides, what is wrong with the IFR? Nobody seems to be comfortable with the tonnes of highly reactive liquid sodium in the system. All trys I know of have been... less that stellar successes. Perhaps you should consider promoting the Lead cooled fast reactor. Not much bett...

Such LENR nuclear waste purification applications can also treat coal ash to economically remove its radioactive waste byproducts. A couple summers ago I went to visit the plant where my daughter was interning. I pointed out to one of her fellow-interns that coal plants emit more radiation than nuk...

Don't worry about radiation, just drop your turbo generator most of the way down the hole and run it there. If it breaks, drop it the rest of the way and drop in a new one. Where's the low temperature side of the loop? Are you guys taking this idea seriously? Well, I guess it is a slow news era. I ...

Bigger bombs give more energy per $$ spent. You can use a LOT of U-238 which otherwise has few uses in energy production. I figured a big H-bomb would make it more expensive to build a chamber strong enough to contain it and harvest energy released. (If memory serves, the neutron-bomb tactical nuke...

H-bombs might be a viable source of energy without blowing anybody up (intentionally). Imagine the smallest h-bomb you can build in the most robust underground chamber you can build. (So the chamber can survive hundreds of blasts.) Then run pipes around the perimeter of the chamber...

Of course the fact that English is the worlds lingua franca (heh) was accidental, not design. And you know who hates it most? The French. A lovely language to be sure (studied it in high school). But not much in vogue. My daughter, the Nuclear Engineer, will never forgive me for encouraging her to ...

Please explain again why it is wrong for corporations to organize themselves to minimize their tax burden? The question generalizes: why is it wrong for any entity to maneuver to minimize its tax burden? I think it is definitely wrong to accuse someone who legally employs the gaps in the law of che...

A lively and thought-provoking talk, even though not entirely convincing. I was irritated that he dismissed solar power so lightly, on the grounds that we can't store it... I'm vacationing in Ludington, MI where the local electrical utility constructed a "pumped storage" facility. It's pretty cool ...