Re: the hydrogen economy

From: Dr. Blake Nelson (bnelson301@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Jul 19 2003 - 18:55:20 EDT

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    It seems that we are always 40 years away from fusion
    as a potential energy source. ;)

    It seems to me as a casual observer that all the focus
    has been on achieving a self-sustaining reaction that
    gives out more power than the power input, but what is
    the status of trying to come up with an effective way
    to capture the vast amount of energy kicked out as
    neutrons (IIRC)?

    It always seemed to me as someone who knows only
    enough about it to be dangerous (and probably horribly
    ill-informed) that actually harnessing the energy
    produced by a fusion reaction was going to be the most
    problematic part... (unless you use fusion to make
    fissile material for fission reactors) that and the
    fact that neutrons getting kicked out make the reactor
    vessel brittle and radioactive to such an extent that
    unlike fission reactors, the vessel will have to be
    swapped out periodically (that's not a cheap prospect
    either).

    --- Jay Willingham <jaywillingham@cfl.rr.com> wrote:
    > Hydrogen strikes me as a junk science/green
    > politician's answer.
    >
    > Where are we in the development of fusion as an
    > energy source?
    >
    > Jay Willingham

    BTW, if you want green energy from hydrogen, you have
    to produce hydrogen by using fission to make it out of
    water. The current process of making hydrogen through
    a chemical reaction with natural gas kicks out a ton
    of greenhouse gasses (but is still cheaper than using
    fission and water since the hydrolosis is a more
    energy intensive process). IIRC, the amount of
    greenhouse gas kicked out by the process currently
    used to make hydrogen out of stuff like natural gas at
    least equals, if not exceeds, the greenhouse gasses
    kicked out by refining petroleum into gasoline and
    burning it in cars.

    So, in that respect, unless the greens are willing to
    have a rapproachment with nukes, hydrogen is NOT a
    green alternative to gasoline.

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