Google Tech Talk
Google Tech Talk
November 2010
Google Tech Talk at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2emKoMgZ03U
Google Tech Talk
November 11th, 2010
Presented by Dr. Charles Helsley.
Abstract:
The
limited supply and worldwide environmental effects of carbon-based
fuels demand that a different source of energy be identified and tapped.
This analysis applies to synthetic bio fuels as well as fossil fuels.
The obvious candidates to supplant carbon-based fuels are solar
conversion, wind generation, hydraulic generation, geothermal
extraction, fission, and fusion. When scaled to the size necessary to
satisfy the energy demands of the world, all except fusion have severe
unmitigated environmental impacts, induce geopolitical instability, or
exhibit very limited availability, reliability, and sustainability. Most
technologies suffer from more than one of these drawbacks.
The
fusion of Deuterium and Tritium ("DT") to form Helium and a neutron is a
well-known reaction that yields prodigious amounts of energy. Though
sufficient fuel is available in seawater to sustain the global energy
demand for millennia, we still need an engine capable of running the
reaction. As of 2009, the search for such an engine has been going on
for 6 decades and common wisdom says it is still 5 decades away. The
problem is that the search has been concentrated on the 1 GW regime (the
size of a normal large power plant). HIF is that engine now.
What
is not generally known is that a safe practical way to harness the
isotope's of Hydrogen reaction was developed in the 1970's but abandoned
because it was only economically viable at a very large scale. The
process is known as High Energy Heavy Ion Fusion. Such a fusion power
plant would produce about 100 GW of power rather than the 1 GW desired
by the power industry. Three facilities would meet the total needs of
California, allowing fission and fossil fuel generation to be cut back
significantly
Heavy Ion Fusion techology is more "ready to go"
now than rocket technology was in 1961 when President Kennedy set the
goal to go to the moon and back within the decade.
The controlled
ignition of DT provides a virtually unlimited source of energy. Fusion
power can be on line in less than a decade. The energy produced by a
single system is equivalent to a super giant oil field and will take
about the same amount of time to come on line producing heat,
electricity, hydrogen for synthetic fuel and water with a minimal carbon
footprint.
The life of HIF is thousands of years, while a giant oil field's life is only a few decades.