Fears over factoids (debunks mini black hole fears, He3 as fuel source)

Physicsworld.com ^ | Aug 3, 2007 | Frank Close

[RightWhale]

Sen Gravel, candidate for Pres, was in Alaska campaigning where he said that the USA could be free of oil in five years if hydrogen, etc., tech were adopted.

[beezdotcom]

Sen Gravel, candidate for Pres, was in Alaska campaigning where he said that the USA could be free of oil in five years if hydrogen, etc., tech were adopted.

I don't know if I buy that. Is it technologically feasible? Sure. But the only way I see it working is to build large numbers of nuclear plants to satisfy the power requirements of a H-based infrastructure. It will take five years just to streamline the approval process to ALLOW nuclear plants to be built quickly. Based on that, I'm thinking the H-based economy is a minimum of 15 years away. (Then again, I'm a bit of a cynic.)

[beezdotcom]

Sen Gravel, candidate for Pres, was in Alaska campaigning where he said that the USA could be free of oil in five years if hydrogen, etc., tech were adopted.

P.S. - I wonder how THAT crowd reacted? "Hey, folks, I can get rid of your payment checks from the pipeline in five years..."

[RightWhale]

I think Gravel was talking about hydrogen fuel for cars. That, we know is pie in the sky. Although Gravel was Senator from Alaska, he left Alaska nearly 30 years ago and is viewed as an impractical person. He at his age should try staying home, which is somewhere in Maryland.

[gcruse]

Before the first open air tests of the atomic bomb were conducted at Los Alamos, there was concern that the nuclear reaction, once begun, would continue into the atmosphere and destroy life on earth. Oddly, they did it anyway.

[gcruse]

What didn't happen

[timer]

Helium 3 has a MUCH better use than as a fusion fuel, if you only knew... As to it’s abundance, Cold Fusion produces H3(tritium)in great profusion. H3 decays by the beta process into He3 w/a 12.5 year half life.