Posted on 01/27/2011 10:38:26 AM PST by The Comedian
“Old School Science would say the final proof would be replicable results.”
125 working units (to get 1MW) sounds pretty much like replicable results to me.
I hope so. If they can do it they will make Bill Gates look like a pauper.
We would almost immediately be able to be self-sufficient on our fossil fuels - and the electrical/fuel cell car movement would explode.
It would take decades for us to complete the switch-over from gasoline powered cars/trucks/boats to electrical. We are pretty embedded in this.
But, where this will most likely be felt is in our utility bills. Heating and cooling bills should drop like a rock!! With more and readily available energy - technology should skyrocket. Imagine, your heating/cooling bill is ~$10-30/month to service your 5,000 sq ft home in Arizona.
I've spent my whole life waiting for laser fusion to produce the goods. I'm not excited.
I want a Mr. Fusion.
“...by key powerful ancient physicists”
yessss...named “Exon”, “Texaco-Mobile”...and their leader ...”US DOE”....
“Imagine, your heating/cooling bill is ~$10-30/month to service your 5,000 sq ft home in Arizona.”
the Feds are ALREADY looking for a regulatory or tax mechanism to put that difference in THEIR pocket....
The question is does it generate enough energy to realize the cost of manufacturing its fuel or is it like ethanol in that it take 10watts of electricity to generate 5watts of potential fuel for the thing. I know aluminum is very energy intensive to refine, nickel???
The greens would still argue about the tires size and it´s incredible waste of chemical made rubber polluting the environment...
It would indeed change the rules of the game.
As one commented upwards, it looks like God himself has had it, and decided to make an end to the actual state of things...
it looks like a broken leg...
The thing is, when some prices plummet, and some services are no longer needed at all, those to whom those dollars used to go will be adversely impacted. Some, severely so.
That is also why we will never “voluntarily” do away with the federal income tax system. The sheer quantity of accountants, lawyers, government employees etc. that make their living off that system is staggering. You don’t pull rug out from under so many people without their being consequences. Severe ones.
Consider, the cost of making the energy will drop - that does NOT mean the profit margin will drop. If the cost of making electricty is 6.5 cent/KWhr and you sell it with taxes and profit included for 8.5 cent/KWhr - you have a 2 cent/KWhr profit.
Now, if cost dives to 1 cent/KWhr - you add your taxes and profit in - and we arrive at 3 cent/KWhr. Uncle Sam get’s the same amount, the utilties get their same budgeted amount. This is still a drop in your household bill of almost 66%. And finally, because the cost is lower - you may use MORE energy than you did before - so everyone’s profits still go up.
No layoffs -we still need linemen. However, the demand for coal and hydroelectric will plummet.
>>Consider, the cost of making the energy will drop - that does NOT mean the profit margin will drop. If the cost of making electricty is 6.5 cent/KWhr and you sell it with taxes and profit included for 8.5 cent/KWhr - you have a 2 cent/KWhr profit.<<
But what if the customer buys their own Mr. Fusion and the utility gets no money whatsoever?
Having no clue as to the start-up cost - this may or may not be viable. There will be a huge number of companies and individuals who will pay a 'service fee' to have someone else worry about maintenance, refueling and emergencies. I don't see a whole lot of people going 'off the grid' in the future. The only people I do see buying their own "Mr. Fusion" are the folk who are moving out into the wilds, and simply have an issue of cost in getting themselves put 'on the grid'. I have some co-workers who bought land in Wyoming, and the cost of getting power brought to their property is $65,000. These folk are forced to consider solar and wind. This could be a viable alternative.
Here is the key: whether it costs more or less, one needs to factor in that the people making money off energy now may not be the ones making money off it in the future. It means those making money off it now will fight change.
This reminds me a little of what is happening to the record industry right now. It is imploding, no matter what they try.
bflr
This reminds me a little of what is happening to the record industry right now. It is imploding, no matter what they try.
I think this cold fusion thing would do to the energy industry what MP3 has done to the music industry. And the former is considerably larger and more intertwined into our economic culture.
No, NIF is the latest version of SHIVA, and it *does* work. But it’s not particularly scalable. HiPER takes NIF and cuts it way down, replacing the extreme compression with a much simpler, lower-energy compression level, level plus a heating pulse. In a way, HiPER is a simplified NIF.
As mentioned, there’s really just one unknown with HiPER, and that is how the heating pulse will function when delivered to such a super-compressed target (Shiva, Nova, and NIF solved the issues that cropped up with the compression pulse). We know a lot about heating pulses like HiPER will do when they’re applied normal matter, but not when applied to super-dense matter.
All right, which one of you wise guys organized a prayer circle dedicated to changing the laws of physics?
Seriously though, I have noticed that what were considered immutable laws of physics are changing.
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