Comments on: Future fission

By: Boganboy

Boganboy — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 16:01:37 +0000

Hydrazine or ammonia would seem to be the obvious substitutes for hydrocarbon fuels, as they could be easily produced by plentiful electric power. I’ll admit, though, that I’d build a pilot plant to see if the production of hydrocarbon fuels from seawater was practical. I understand that atmospheric and ocean surface CO2 concentrations equilibrate over a 5 to 10 year period, so the H2O and CO2 from fuel burning would be perpetually recycled. This would allow us to continue to use our present hydrocarbon consuming machinery and infrastructure. Indeed I’d imagine that petrochemical coke from the synfuel plants’d make a reasonable coal substitute.

By: doggeface

doggeface — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 21:40:12 +0000

It would be nice to learn some technical facts regarding 4th generation systems. The grail (fission) was lightly touched upon but I have never read of any successful fission experimentation ! The idea of 90% fuel consumption by end of core life and leaving relatively cold and short life products is the ultimate ambition of the nuclear industry. This begs the question – if this is presently available then who is preventing it’s progress?
The first & second generation systems have not only been a success but have lived much longer than planned and have the lowest mortality record (by a long margin) of any other major human industry.