Instapundit says that we will need coal, oil, and natural gas for some time even if some one invents Mr. Fusion tomorrow. Which is true.However, Mr. Fusion was invented yesterday (several years ago actually).
It was invented by Dr Robert Bussard formerly of the AEC fusion office. He did the work under a Naval contract.
The Bussard Fusion Reactor will lower electrical costs at the busbar by at least 10X over coal or fission nuke power plants. Capital cost for electical plants using the Bussard Fusion design will decline by at least 5X mainly because no turbines, condensers, steam generators or electrical generators are required. With such a lowering of costs and simplicity of required equipment, roll out will be very fast.
The reactor is just a big sphere surrounded by electro-magnets. The main cost of the plant is converting the 2 million volts DC output to AC for local use. The direct 2 million volt output would be great for long distance transmission. Although the plants copuld be sited in just about any reasonably sized electrical yard since any required cooling would not requre a water supply. Air cooling would work fine.
The power generator is about 10 to 12 ft across for an output between 100 MW and 1,000 MW. Power output scales as the 7th power of size. Double the size and you get 128X as much power.
No thermal plant is required. Thermal plants - steam generators, turbines etc. - are long lead time items. They can take from 3 to 5 years from start of production to delivery. The Bussard Fusion Reactor output is direct 2 million volts DC. (a very large battery).
Unlike fission plants there is no fuel stored in the reactor core = no Three Mile Island kind of problems. Turn off the electricity or turn off the fuel and the
reaction stops.
It would make a good rocket engine for fast interplanetary travel.
Easy Low Cost No Radiation Fusion - video plus technical details.
Dr Bussard needs $2 million in start up funds to verify reaction constants. He will need $200 million for a test reactor.
The fuel is Boron 11 which is very abundant. We have 200,000+ years of reserves on the planet if it is used exclusively for power. Most borax is used now for borosilicate glass.
Let me take this time to specifically thank the crew at Classical Values Justin and Eric for giving me a heads up on this.
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1 comment:
Re the Bussard fusion reactor:
I did a tiny amount of research on this, and I am left wondering why significant funding has not come forward for this concept of thermonuclear power generation, either from the government (in particular, the Navy, which provided early funding) or from the private sector.
For example, why wouldn't Google or GE support this effort with seed capital? Apparently, there is a lot I do not know about the Bussard fusion reactor, since if what I read about it were true, then someone or some company would make many billions from it.
Perhaps Dr. Bussard should be talking to venture capitalists or private equity managers. Someone on Wall Street would be interested if this reactor concept is the real deal.
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