43 replies to this topic

[chubtoad]

Evidence Bubbles Over To Support Tabletop Nuclear Fusion Device

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Researchers are reporting new evidence supporting their earlier discovery of an inexpensive "tabletop" device that uses sound waves to produce nuclear fusion reactions.  The researchers believe the new evidence shows that "sonofusion" generates nuclear reactions by creating tiny bubbles that implode with tremendous force. Nuclear fusion reactors have historically required large, multibillion-dollar machines, but sonofusion devices might be built for a fraction of that cost. "What we are doing, in effect, is producing nuclear emissions in a simple desktop apparatus," said Rusi Taleyarkhan, the principal investigator and a professor of nuclear engineering at Purdue University. "That really is the magnitude of the discovery – the ability to use simple mechanical force for the first time in history to initiate conditions comparable to the interior of stars."

The technology might one day, in theory, lead to a new source of clean energy. It may result in a new class of low-cost, compact detectors for security applications that use neutrons to probe the contents of suitcases; devices for research that use neutrons to analyze the molecular structures of materials; machines that cheaply manufacture new synthetic materials and efficiently produce tritium, which is used for numerous applications ranging from medical imaging to watch dials; and a new technique to study various phenomena in cosmology, including the workings of neutron stars and black holes.

More here

Edited by chubtoad, 17 May 2005 - 02:34 AM.

[chubtoad]

http://www.usgs.gov/...es/pr1824m.html
December 10, 2003

Gas Hydrates – Will They be Considered in the Future Global Energy Mix?

For the first time, an international research program involving the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey has proven that it is technically feasible to produce gas from gas hydrates. Gas hydrates are a naturally occurring “ice-like” combination of natural gas and water that have the potential to be a significant new source of energy from the world’s oceans and polar regions.

Today at a symposium in Japan, the successful results of the first modern, fully integrated production testing of gas hydrates are being discussed by an international gathering of research scientists. The international consortium, including the USGS, the Department of Energy, Canada, Japan, India, Germany, and the energy industry conducted test drilling at a site known as Mallik, in the Mackenzie Delta of the Canadian Arctic. This location was chosen because it has one of the highest concentrations of known gas hydrates in the world.

The United States is committed to participating in international research programs such as this one to advance the understanding of natural gas hydrates and the development of these resources. Even though gas hydrates are known to occur in numerous marine and Arctic settings, little was known before the Mallik project about the technology necessary to produce gas hydrates. The successful results from this research form the world’s most detailed scientific information about the occurrence and production characteristics of gas hydrates.

Edited by chubtoad, 23 July 2005 - 08:53 AM.

[chubtoad]

Source: National Institute Of Standards And Technology
Date: 2003-09-29
http://www.scienceda...30929054209.htm


Residential Fuel Cells

Residential fuel cells sound almost too good to be true. Take a hydrocarbon fuel such as natural gas, use a catalyst to extract hydrogen from it, react the hydrogen with air and, presto, you have a home power plant!
As the hydrogen and the oxygen in the air combine, they produce electricity. The primary "waste products" of the whole process are water and heat. But that's not all! The "waste" heat can be captured to provide space or water heating for the home.
Residential fuel cell systems can produce about five kilowatts of power or 120 kilowatt-hours of energy a day--more than enough to operate the average household. But a lack of performance data on how well fuel cells work under different conditions is one of several factors slowing marketplace acceptance of the new technology.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have just launched an effort to supply the needed information. They are studying how changing electrical and heating demands, outside temperatures, humidity and power systems affect the efficiency of fuel cells made by different manufacturers.

NIST will submit its draft fuel cell test procedures and rating methodology to a standards committee composed of industry, independent standard organizations, government and academic representatives. With consensus procedures in place, fuel cell manufacturers should be able to evaluate and improve the electrical and thermal energy efficiency and output of their products. Ultimately, consumers will be able to use NIST-developed performance ratings to understand the financial costs and benefits of fuel cells operated in specific geographic and climate conditions, at different times of the year, and for different purposes such as heating or electricity generation.

[chubtoad]

24 March 2004
MARK PEPLOW
http://www.nature.co...2/040322-7.html

Twin turbines make an underwater windmill that creates electricity.

Sea change for tidal power
New underwater turbines could be cheap and eco-friendly.
A British company has invented a simple tidal power system that is relatively easy to install and has little impact on its environment. The device could soon be added to our range of renewable energy resources, and be used to bring power to remote seaside locations.

The TidEl system uses floating turbines that are anchored to the seabed by chains. The underwater windmills drift back and forth with the tide, so they point in the best direction to get power from the spinning blades.

"It is a rugged but simple design," says Ian Griffiths, a business manager for SMD Hydrovision, Newcastle upon Tyne, the company that invented the system.

The group tested a one-tenth scale model of the generator by submerging the device in a huge water tank at the New and Renewable Energy Centre in Northumberland this January. Results presented at the Oceanology International 2004 meeting in London last week suggest that full-size twin turbines should produce about one megawatt of electricity.

The inventors hope to deploy a full-scale unit, with blades 15 metres long, at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney next year.

Edited by chubtoad, 23 July 2005 - 08:53 AM.

[chubtoad]

http://www.nupr.neu..../fuelcells.html

Fuel Cells

(4-21-04) BOSTON, Mass. – “The goal is to get off the wall,” says Professor Sanjeev Mukerjee of Northeastern’s chemistry department when he talks about his work developing long-lasting, non-polluting fuel cells. Getting “off the wall,” he explains, means no more plugging in, no more cell phone battery chargers, and no more looking for an outlet for laptops, digital cameras or PDAs. Mukerjee and the firm Protonics have already been contracted by the military to develop portable fuel cells for soldiers in the field. In a future that may be as close as ten years away, Mukerjee envisions small, light, portable cartridges that will easily generate 5,000 hours of power – a far cry from today’s rechargeable batteries. And when the cartridge, powered by clean hydrogen or methanol, is empty, he says, it can be tossed and replaced without ever needing a wall socket.

Mukerjee is a big dreamer, and his dreams are moving rapidly toward reality in the form of two recent start-ups that are putting his ideas into practice. The young firms, Protonics Corp and Integrated Fuel Cell Inc., are working with Mukerjee to create different kinds of fuel cells, including the much-vaunted hydrogen fueled car. That dream may be decades away, says Mukerjee, but they are much closer, he believes, to powering small, personal devices with disposable cartridges. The fuel cells that Protonics is developing for the U.S. military would power the high-tech gear like GPS and night-vision goggles that rapidly suck battery power and weigh down the troops.

Integrated Fuel Cell, Inc. is working on an automotive fuel cell, concentrating on methanol as the reactive ingredient. Methanol, like hydrogen, has no polluting by-products. It is extracted from coal or natural gas, and has the advantage, at about 46 cents per gallon, of being far cheaper than oil and independent of oil-related politics.

[chubtoad]

http://www.scienceda...31020054036.htm
Some relevent news from a couple of months ago

Electricity from Flowing Water

A team of researchers in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta (U of A) has discovered a new way of generating electricity from flowing water. It may soon be possible to never have to charge up a cellular phone again instead, the phone could be fitted with a battery that uses pressurized water.[/b]

Research published today by the Institute of Physics journal, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering reveals a new method of generating electric power by harnessing the natural electrokinetic properties of a liquid, such as ordinary tap water, when it is pumped through tiny microchannels. The research team in Edmonton, Canada, has created a new source of clean non-polluting electric power with a variety of possible uses, ranging from powering small electronic devices to contributing to a national power grid.

The research, led by U of A professors Daniel Kwok and Larry Kostiuk, started as a simple conversation between Kostiuk, a thermodynamicist, and Kwok, a nanofabrication researcher. With the assistance of two graduate students, who benefited first-hand from the teachings of their supervisors, the team was able to illuminate a real light bulb by exploiting the coupling between electrokinetic phenomena and the hydrodynamics of liquid flow.

"This discovery has a huge number of possible applications," said Kostiuk. "It could be a new alternative energy source to rival wind and solar power although this would need huge bodies of water to work on a commercial scale. Hydrocarbon fuels are still the best source of energy but they're fast running out and so new options like this one could be vital in the future.
"This technology could provide a new power source for devices such as mobile phones or calculators which could be charged up by pumping water to high pressure."

Edited by chubtoad, 23 July 2005 - 08:54 AM.

[chubtoad]

http://www.lanl.gov/...ve/04-040.shtml

Squeezing more juice out of solar panels

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 30, 2004 -- University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have experimentally demonstrated a phenomenon in which semiconductor nanocrystals respond to photons by producing multiple electrons. The innovation has potential applications in a new generation of solar cells that would produce as much as 35 percent more electrical output than current solar cells.

In a paper published today in the journal Physical Review Letters, Laboratory scientists Richard Schaller and Victor Klimov describe their observations of high efficiency carrier multiplication in nanoparticles of less than 10 nanometers in diameter made from lead and selenium (PbSe nanocrystals). Upon illumination with light at the green-blue end of the spectrum, these nanocrystals react to absorbing solar photons by producing twice the electrons of conventional bulk semiconductors through a process known as carrier multiplication. This increase in the number of electrons being produced can lead to a greater electrical current output from solar cells.

The basic operation of solar cells has essentially remained unchanged over the past four decades -- the absorption of a photon by the solar cell material generates a single exciton (a bound state of a negatively charged electron and a positively charged hole), which undergoes charge separation and produces electrical current. Traditionally, the single photon produces only one exciton. The rest of the photon's energy is lost as heat. Over the decades, scientists have proposed various methods for improving the efficiency of solar panels, including a method called carrier multiplication.

Carrier multiplication was discovered in the 1950s, but has always been considered a very inefficient method for solar energy conversion since it produced, at best, an increase in solar energy conversion efficiency of less than 1 percent. Los Alamos scientists have demonstrated that the use of nanoscale semiconductor particles can greatly improve the efficiency of carrier multiplication through a significant enhancement of the effect called impact ionization. Impact ionization is a process where an exciton, created in a semiconductor by absorbing a photon, transfers the excess energy that would normally have been lost as heat to another electron. The result of this energy transfer process is that two excitons are formed for one absorbed photon.

Edited by chubtoad, 23 July 2005 - 08:54 AM.

[chubtoad]

http://www.physicsto.../iss-4/p27.html

DOE Warms to Cold Fusion

Whether outraged or supportive about DOE's planned reevaluation of cold fusion, most scientists remain deeply skeptical that it's real.

Hot air?
The cold fusion claims made in 1989 by B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann didn't hold up. But they did spawn a small and devoted coterie of researchers who continue to investigate the alleged effect. Cold fusion die-hards say their data from the intervening 15 years merit a reevaluation-- and a place at the table with mainstream science. Now they have the ear of the US Department of Energy.

"I have committed to doing a review" of cold fusion, says James Decker, deputy director of DOE's Office of Science. Late last year, he says, "some scientists came and talked to me and asked if we would do some kind of review on the research that has been done" since DOE's energy research advisory board (ERAB) looked at cold fusion nearly 15 years ago. "There may be some interesting science here," Decker says. "Whether or not it has applications to the energy business is clearly unknown at this point, but you need to sort out the science before you think about applications."

DOE is still working out the details, Decker says, but a review of cold fusion will begin in the next month or so and "won't take a long time--it's a matter of weeks or months." 

Edited by chubtoad, 23 July 2005 - 08:55 AM.

[chubtoad]

http://www.scienceda...40723090306.htm

'Cool' Fuel Cells Could Revolutionize Earth's Energy Resources

HOUSTON, July 22, 2004 — As temperatures soar this summer, so do electric bills. Researchers at the University of Houston are striving toward decreasing those costs with the next revolution in power generation.

Imagine a power source so small, yet so efficient, that it could make cumbersome power plants virtually obsolete while lowering your electric bill. A breakthrough in thin film solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is currently being refined in labs at the University of Houston, making that dream a reality.

Originating from research at UH's Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials (TcSAM), these SOFCs of the "thin film" variety are both efficient and compact. With potential ranging from use in the government in matters of defense and space travel to driving forces in the consumer market that include computers and electricity, this breakthrough carries tremendous impact.

"By using materials science concepts developed in our superconductivity research and materials processing concepts in our semiconductor research, we are able to reduce operating temperatures, eliminate steps and use less expensive materials that will potentially revolutionize from where we derive electrical energy," said Alex Ignatiev, director of TcSAM and distinguished university professor of physics, chemistry and electrical and computer engineering at UH. "While there are a number of fuel cell research programs at the university, ours focuses on the application of thin film science and technology to gain the benefits of efficiency and low cost."

Compared to the macroscopic size of traditional fuel cells that can take up an entire room, thin film SOFCs are one micron thick – the equivalent of about one-hundredth of a human hair. Putting this into perspective, the size equivalent of four sugar cubes would produce 80 watts – more than enough to operate a laptop computer, eliminating clunky batteries and giving you hours more juice in your laptop. By the same token, approximately two cans' worth of soda would produce more than five kilowatts, enough to power a typical household.

Keeping in mind that one thin film SOFC is just a fraction of the size of a human hair with an output of 0.8 to 0.9 Volts, a stack of 100 to 120 of these fuel cells would generate about 100 volts. When connected to a homeowner's natural gas line, the stack would provide the needed electrical energy to run the household at an efficiency of approximately 65 percent. This would be a twofold increase over power plants today, as they operate at 30 to 35 percent efficiency. Stand-alone household fuel cell units could form the basis for a new 'distributed power' system. In this concept, energy not used by the household would be fed back into a main grid, resulting in a credit to the user's account, while overages would similarly receive extra energy from that grid and be charged accordingly.

[chubtoad]

http://www.nature.co.../041122-16.html

Europe prepares to go for fusion alone

European ministers today agreed to build the $6.1-billion ITER experimental nuclear-fusion reactor with less than all its international partners, if that proves necessary to secure a French site for the project.

ITER will try to prove the principle of creating fusion energy by heating plasma constrained by a magnetic field. But a deadlock among the project's six partners over the choice of host has stalled it for more than a year.

[Mind]

Here is another story about a potential way to get clean hydrogen from solar energy.

Read the full article here

Molecule Harvests Water's Hydrogen

December 6, 2004

The key to producing clean hydrogen energy is finding a non-polluting method to extract pure hydrogen from its most abundant source -- water.

Researchers have been working for decades to develop catalysts that make it possible to use energy from sunlight to extract hydrogen from water. These materials absorb energy from photons in order to speed the rate at which electrons combine with hydrogen in water molecules to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Such catalysts are commonly made from the semiconductor materials used to make computer chips. Researchers are working to find catalysts that can extract energy from a greater portion of sunlight's spectrum and use the energy to move electrons more efficiently.

Virginia Polytechnic and State University researchers have developed a large molecule, or supramolecular complex, that combines sub-units that absorb light with sub-units that accept electrons.

The complex could be used to produce hydrogen for clean-burning combustion engines and fuel cells.

It has been known for years that molecules containing the metal ruthenium absorb solar light well and could produce enough energy to carry out hydrogen production. The stumbling block to producing such molecules is getting light to generate two or more electrons at a time, which is required to generate enough energy to split water.

The researchers' molecule has light-absorbing ruthenium subunits on each end, connector subunits near the middle and a reactive rhodium sub-unit in the center that collects electrons and delivers them to water.

[Mind]

Here is another story about getting hydrogen directly from sunlight.

The company's president says they can run at 8 percent efficiency and that 10 percent is competitive with fossil fuels. Of course, that is at today's fossil fuel prices. Seeing how the oil price keeps going up, Hydrogen Solar's 8 percent might look like quite a bargain...as soon as next year.

Company plans hydrogen generating station in Las Vegas NEXT YEAR

Hydrogen Solar of Guilford, England, and Altair Nanotechnologies are building a hydrogen-generation system that captures sunlight and uses the energy to break water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The company's current project is a fuel station in Las Vegas that will soon be dispensing hydrogen fuel.

Hydrogen Solar CEO David Auty said his company's Tandem Cell technology uses two solar cells that together capture sunlight from every part of the ultraviolet spectrum.

Hydrogen Solar CEO David Auty said his company's Tandem Cell technology uses two solar cells that together capture sunlight from every part of the ultraviolet spectrum. The interaction of photons with a semiconductor material causes a photoelectrochemical reaction that excites electrons and causes water molecules to break up into hydrogen and oxygen, according to Auty.

Auty said Tandem Cells are coated with a layer containing metal oxide particles that are less than 30 nanometers thick and can convert sunlight energy into hydrogen with 8 percent efficiency. Auty said that while other researchers view 10 percent efficiency as cost-competitive with fossil fuels, his technology can compete today.

Auty hopes to have a working demonstration system in early 20051. He said they are currently able to produce a few kilograms of hydrogen per day at the Hydrogen Solar laboratory using cells that are approximately 10 square inches.

Hydrogen Solar is creating consumer and industrial applications that extend research performed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University of Geneva, according to Auty. He said a system on a home's garage roof that is 10 percent efficient could provide enough hydrogen for a fuel-cell car to drive 11,000 miles per year. "The market will have a niche in the home, as people will be able to install their own systems and run their vehicles using the hydrogen produced during daylight hours," he said.

I would say this last quote is optimistic. Fossil fuels sources will become stained a lot sooner than 2030.

Turner said it's important to turn up the heat on hydrogen research now. "In 2030 we're not going to have enough oil, natural gas and coal to meet our energy needs ... and hydrogen is the best carrier" for an alternative fuel.

[kraemahz]

This paper is two years old, but since I haven't seen anyone mention it, I thought I'd put it up. Turning sugar into fuel:

http://www.engr.psu....gan-etal-H2.pdf

Biological Hydrogen Production Measured in Batch Anerobic Respirometers

Bruce E. Logan, Sang-Eun Oh, In S. Kim, and Steven Van Ginkel

The biological production of hydrogen from the fermentation of different substrates was examined in batch tests using heat-shocked mixed cultures with two techniques: an intermittent preasure release method (Owen method) and a continuous gas release method using a bubble measurement device (respirometric method). Under otherwise identical conditions, the respirometric method resulted in the production of 43% more hydrogen gas from glucose than the Owen method. The lower conversion of glucose to hydrogen using the Owen protocol may have been produced by repression of hydrogenase activity from high partial pressures in the gastight bottles, but this could not be proven using thermodynamic/rate inhibition analysis...Overall, hydrogen conversion efficences for glucose cultures were 23% based on the assumption of a maximum of 4 mol of hydrogen/mol of glucose. Hydrogen conversion efficencies were similar to sucrose (23%)...

[Chip]

Well, the DOE concluded their second review of cold fusion and it appears to be another attempt to keep it under wraps, suppressed. Here is the news as covered by, perhaps, the most comprehensive web site on the subject. Check out their "Library."

http://www.lenr-canr.org/News.htm

Overall, the review is inconclusive. It says, for example: "Two-thirds of the reviewers commenting on Charge Element 1 did not feel the evidence was conclusive for low energy nuclear reactions, one found the evidence convincing, and the remainder indicated they were somewhat convinced. Many reviewers noted that poor experiment design, documentation, background control and other similar issues hampered the understanding and interpretation of the results presented." Many in the cold fusion field share this complaint. However, this is a strawman that was not part of the charge given the reviewers. The reviewers were asked whether the claims, taken in total, are real and whether further study should be encouraged using a level of funding required to overcome these handicaps. To this charge, the response was lukewarm.

[Mind]

New potential for solar power

"We made particles from semiconductor crystals which were exactly two, three or four nanometres in size. The nanoparticles were so small they remained dispersed in everyday solvents just like the particles in paint," explains Sargent. Then, they tuned the tiny nanocrystals to catch light at very short wavelengths. The result – a sprayable infrared detector.

Existing technology has given us solution-processible, light-sensitive materials that have made large, low-cost solar cells, displays, and sensors possible, but these materials have so far only worked in the visible light spectrum, says Sargent. "These same functions are needed in the infrared for many imaging applications in the medical field and for fibre optic communications," he says.

The discovery may also help in the quest for renewable energy sources. Flexible, roller-processed solar cells have the potential to harness the sun's power, but efficiency, flexibility and cost are going to determine how that potential becomes practice, says Josh Wolfe, managing partner and nanotechnology venture capital investor at Lux Capital in Manhattan. Wolfe, who was not part of the research team, says the findings in the paper are significant: "These flexible photovoltaics could harness half of the sun's spectrum not previously accessed."

[advancedatheist]

From:

http://www.community...rg/pdfs/NS4.pdf

or,

http://www.energybul...n.net/4256.html

Peak Oil – Peak Technology

Number 4, January 2005

As the energy crisis intensifies, a myriad of technical solutions are being proposed. Most were
investigated in depth during the first two energy crises of the 1970s. There is a wealth of
information available from that period, plus all the results of research in the ensuing 25 years.

A serious societal problem is the lack of understanding of the energy options, their history
and their limitations. History gives a sense of the possible speed and cost of implementation,
as well as the limits of the technologies themselves. Governments, corporations and scientists
are not offering new creative solutions, not because they are failing to make strong efforts,
but because energy itself is a very mature industry.

It would seem that – in addition to Peak Oil – we are at a time of Peak Technology...
there are no new technologies we can look to for solutions to the end of fossil fuels.

Finding a New Source of Energy

It is frequently stated in the press that “we must find a new source of energy,”
preferably one that is both clean and inexhaustible. Although this seems to be
a reasonable statement, it is somewhat equivalent to saying that we must find a
new continent – it is no more likely that we will find some new mineral or mineral
combination to replace the vast volume of hydrocarbons we have consumed. Minerals
exist in the earth and water and new ones were found over the course of several
centuries. But like the continents, there are a fixed number of them.

[knite]

im sorry but the above has to be the most blind assessment of our situation ive seen yet. physicists said the same thing at the dawn of the 20th century, that there was nothing left to discover. im sorry, but theres ALWAYS something new, at least in our miniscule stage of development, compared to the galactic scale.

Edited by knite, 12 February 2005 - 12:31 PM.

[eternaltraveler]

We already have found that mineral. It's called Uranium. Mineable sources are estimated to last us a billion years at current energy consumption.

I'll reiterate what I stated in another thread. To put it in perspective just how much energy you can get out of uranium, the tiny uranium impurities in coal have more energy available than the coal itself.

If we would just get over our nuclear aversion our energy needs would be solved.

[123456]

Quote;

"We already have found that mineral. It's called Uranium. Mineable sources are estimated to last us a billion years at current energy consumption.

I'll reiterate what I stated in another thread. To put it in perspective just how much energy you can get out of uranium, the tiny uranium impurities in coal have more energy available than the coal itself.

If we would just get over our nuclear aversion our energy needs would be solved. "

1. Where are you going to put the harmful waste products from the result of using Uranium as an energy source?
2. In conjunction with question 1; It takes a long time for the waste product to be safe. Even now, at present time, it is difficult to find areas where to put the stuff; much less what an increase in nuclear power will yield.
3. There is a better way than Nuclear power; clean energy structures such as wind turbines, tidal turbines, solar panels, geothermal energy plants ( like in Iceland) etc.

I must make it clear; People talk about renewable energy, we are incapable of recycling the energy right now with our technological level. The earth radiates energy back into outer space, we get more from the sun, eventually the sun is going to loose all its energy. We have billions of years of energy left in the sun. It is logical to harness the energy VIA Wind Turbines etc., not endanger our planet with harmful waste materials. It is usually all about money, not the best for the planet and therefore ourselves.

[jaydfox]

I have to agree with Elrond. Nuclear is the way to go. We have serious energy problems coming up, including loss of chemical production because of dependency on oil (fertilizer, plastics, etc.).

With lots and lots of nuclear power, we could use the excess electricity to manufacture chemicals that we normally manufacture from oil. This helps reduce our dependency on oil in two ways: energy, and chemicals.

Recent advances in materials research has shown that the waste can be stored in special ceramics/cements, which lock the waste in chemically inert form and absorb most of the neutron radiation. These cements are much safer to store than previous storage techniques. Here's an example of one of these systems.

Also, new pebble bed reactors, using helium as the heat moderator, are much safer than current models, nearly impossible to melt-down.

With the safety and waste storage issues rapidly being addressed by new technology, fission power promises to be the next "green" energy source. Extremely abundant, requiring relatively small facilities (all the renewables require vast amounts of land/water space), and we can ramp up energy output far faster than energy shortages due to peak oil could be a problem. No net emissions of greenhouse gases or toxic chemicals, short of accidents, which we've already addressed: pebble bed modular reactors.

The problem isn't a technical one. It's a matter of conviction. Do we want to solve the coming energy crisis, or are we too weak and socially divided to get the job done? I'm not holding my breath.

About the only issue not covered is terrorism. But nuclear energy isn't the problem; American foreign policy is, or at the least, terrorism is. It's like the saying: guns don't kill people, people kill people. Nuclear energy isn't the problem; it's part of the solution.

[Chip]

Nuclear energy from fission is stupid. It can sustain energy cartels, police states, terrorist activities that serve those who appreciate the excuse for consolidating more power, tyranny, secrecy, all the stuff of George Orwell's dystopic vision which is more than alive today and promising to escalate. The DOE has done an extensive analysis of wind energy and their prognosis was that it could more than meet the needs of the US quickly with little impact. If you do a little research you will find that the potential for wind is enough to meet most of humanity's needs including the production of hydrogen fuel for mobile vehicles. In the mean time, existing vehicles can run on vegetable oil and alcohol as we will need to phase out burning the fossil fuels fast if we want to qualify as rational enough to survive a while.

There is one big problem with any one trying to assess what is needed for energy, those who control it today want it to remain controlled by a few. I hold that if we don't learn how to recognize and employ appropriate technologies us humans are a done deal so it is not a case of accepting the risks in hopes that the greatest energy sources will come eventually. The technology is here now. The real problem is in the realm of sociology.

[Mind]

I agree with you here Chip, that those who control energy supplies want to stay in control. I have noticed a rash of control measures world-wide, and not just in the energy biz. The music companies want to control all music. The oil companies want to control energy. Most governments want to control and regulate the supplement industry...etc

The old power structures feel the stress of technological change. They are lashing out (in vain) against it. The future of energy, information, and other resources is distributed, open, and inherently difficult to control.

[Chip]

Oh, here is one report on wind by the DOE that tends to support what I claimed: http://www.eere.ener..._potential.html

Add to that solar cells, bio-fuels, solar furnaces and tides and you begin to get the picture. The technology exists today to make humanity successful without developing the stuff of atomic weapons and pollution.

And then, consider the claims for the still advancing science of low energy nuclear reactions. The post on "Cold Fusion News" in this subject area gives you some URLs. You can also get a few more from links at my web site listed below.

[Lazarus Long]

Here is an article about a new device that is approaching fusion from what I suspect is a better avenue, *micro fusion*. Since the potential power output is so great I have always suspected (along with others like I. Asimov) that the most productive way to approach the problem parallels nenotech and ME's.



Palmtop Nuclear Fusion Device Invented
By Michael Schirber
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 27 April 2005
01:00 pm ET

The nuclear reaction that powers the Sun has been reproduced in a pocket-sized device, scientists announced today.

Researchers have for years tried to harness nuclear fusion to power the world. But its cousin, nuclear fission -- the breaking apart of atoms -- is the only method so far commercially viable.

The latest invention is not in the same league as efforts to build complex commercial reactors. The new device creates a relatively small number of reactions, and requires more energy to operate than it produces.

But the configuration is so small and simple that its creators think it may inspire unforeseen applications.

"I certainly find it interesting that you can heat a cubic centimeter crystal in your hand, then plunge it in cold water and it will cause nuclear fusion," Seth Putterman from the University of California Los Angeles told LiveScience.

Putterman's lay description greatly oversimplifies how the compact apparatus works.

Specifically, Putterman and collaborators heat a pyroelectric crystal, lithium tantalite, from minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit to plus 45 in a matter of minutes. This generates an electrical charge -- 100,000 volts -- across the tiny crystal, which is housed in a chamber filled with deuterium gas, a heavy form of hydrogen.

The high voltage is focused onto a needle-thin tip, which strips electrons from nearby deuterium nuclei and then accelerates them at a solid target containing deuterium. When two deuterium nuclei collide together at high speed, they fuse to form helium.

{excerpt}

http://www.livescien...n_table_A1.html

[chubtoad]

France will be the country to host the fusion reactor project.
http://www.nature.co...l/050627-5.html

[eternaltraveler]

bout time they picked somewhere

[manowater989]

I'm more worried about energy sources over cosmic time and distance scales. As is often the case, my questions are motivated at least in part by selfish desires, but even allow me to just use them as a template for an example. As I have mentioned in previous topics, I plan to evolve into a vast network-being composed of, in addition to my original body I'm sitting in right now, a large array of biological, electronic, and possibly even other types of connected forms, some of which I hope to start sending to other planets within the next 2 or 3 centuries.

"Out there", what will be a sustainable, long-term power source? I guess it's basically the same idea as what would a power source be for long-range spacecraft, or even stand-alone robotic avatars designed to be able to operate like people, and not just for a specific function. Would solar energy just be enough? Probably not, and once stars started dying out, as well as in interstellar or even intergalactic distances with no solar energy readily available, we'd have a problem. Portable, on-board nuclear reactors of some type provide a short-term solution, but over the long-term, we would need something much more permanently stable: if only there was some kind of way of extracting large amounts of energy from relatively small amounts of matter, or even space-time itself. I believe that's some extent of what the concept of the now ubiquitously-touted (although I'm sure most have no idea what it exactly is) zero-point energy is about, but the question is, how doable is that?

Or if there were some way to take advantage of the extremely long half-lives of materials, if there was a way to continuously, passively be harvesting energy from them all that time that they release as they decay, that would go a long way towards alleviating or at least delaying the problem of energy sources that have to last basically infinitely long and can't easily be gotten to to replace. What does anyone think about this?

[knite]

ZPE baby, YEAH!

[Chip]

I doubt ZPE but cold fusion still appears to be a possibility, despite the on-going active suppression:

http://www.lenr-canr.org/

I've collected a few links regarding cold fusion at my links page http://home.pacbell....chipl/links.htm

"active suppression?" OH NO. NOT ANOTHER CONSPIRACY THEORY!

[scottl]

I can't imagine this has not been discussed but how about solar panels in space and microwaving the energy to earth?