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From: nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.politics
Subject: Re: alternate, hopefully safe, energy sources
Message-ID: <329@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 5-Aug-84 18:20:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.329
Posted: Sun Aug  5 18:20:54 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Aug-84 19:37:35 EDT
References: <9368@gatech.UUCP>
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 22

[]
Fusion power has some serious technical problems -- the main one is that
of "containment" -- how to keep things together long enough to extract
more energy than it takes to mash them together.  Physicists have been
working at solving this problem since 1947, and haven't solved it yet;
still, there is *one* simple way to do it: gravity containment.

Unfortunately there are a few side effects:  the reactor has to be *very*
large, about the size of the sun.  You wouldn't want to have one in your
basement.  It might be useful, though, located at some safe distance, where
all the neutron-induced isotopes are safely contained, and all that reaches
you is pure, clean, thermal energy.

Recommended distance:  about 93 million miles.

Of course, all this is just theory ...

-- 

                                 Ed Nather
                                 {allegra,ihnp4}!{ut-sally,noao}!utastro!nather
                                 Astronomy Dept., U. of Texas, Austin