Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site proper.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!nsc!proper!dsmith
From: dsmith@proper.UUCP (David Smith)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.politics
Subject: Re: alternate, hopefully safe, energy sources
Message-ID: <1494@proper.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Aug-84 16:22:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: proper.1494
Posted: Tue Aug  7 16:22:41 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Aug-84 03:46:58 EDT
References: <9368@gatech.UUCP> <329@utastro.UUCP>, <355@utmbvax.UUCP>
Organization: Proper UNIX, San Leandro, CA
Lines: 15

{A sacrifice to the (hopefully) mythical line eater}

	We already havea large fusion reaction.  It's called the sun.  The
problem is doing anything with all the energy we get out of it.  If we had
an efficient method of converting light energy to electricity, we'd have it
made.
	A gravity containment reactor would pose the same problems as the
sun.  There's a hell of a lot of energy coming out of it, but how do you
use it?  Any method of collecting the power would have to be in space, and
once you've got it, how the heck do you get it down here?  Microwaves have
been proposed for power transmissions, but whenever I think of microwaves
carrying enough energy to actually be useful, I keep on seeing all these
birds, airliners, etc. flying through the beam and getting cooked.

				David Smith