Re: Remember "Bit-Slice" Chips ?

On 12/8/24 1:25 PM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 08/12/2024 16:18, Rich wrote:

186282@ud0s4.net <186283@ud0s4.net> wrote:

>
   Modern flywheels - super-sized - COULD store rather a lot of
   energy.  However you'd need to bury them a little Just In Case.

>
The physics of flywheels begin to bite you in the a** when you start
trying to "supersize" them for storage of significant amounts of
energy.  You need exotic super strong materials (read as: "super
costly" and/or "does not exist yet") to prevent them from pulling
themselves apart rather explosively.

 Exactly. Sentences like "COULD store rather a lot of energy." are simple hand-wavey nonsense,.

   Nah ... not entirely.
   The modern take isn't a big ring of steel - but closer
   to the 'wire brush' you see on cheapo grinding machines.
   However the 'wire' is well organized carbon/graphite/nanotube
   fibers spinning in a vacuum. It's incredibly strong - and if
   one or two fibers break it's not such a huge deal. The whole
   thing spins on mag bearings and there are magnets/coils not far
   from the axle that serve as booster/generators.
   In short, DO-able ... and NOT insanely expensive. CAN hold
   rather a LOT of energy too.

 The UK to be fully 'renewable' for example would need to store the sort of energy  found in half a dozen medium sized strategic nuclear bombs.

   Um ... probably more.

However you do that, its damned risky - hydrogen - spinning flywheels - hydro dams, batteries.
 In fact the safest  energy store capable of doing it is a set of uranium/plutonium fuel rods. And then you don't need any renewable shit at all.
 Simples!

   Nuke reactors CAN indeed be very good. The TRICK is in
   making them accident/terrorist-proof. "Pebble bed" is
   pretty "-proof" - and according to some news China is
   building a number of such plants. Thermodynamically
   the 'hot' reactors seem more favorable and the US/EU
   is tilting that way (a mistake imho).
   There's STILL the issue of dealing with the nuke waste.
   Takes ten forevers for it to decay. The French actually
   encapsulate and store it AT the plant site. For others
   like the USA, a bunker in the center of large military
   bases might be better - you can keep an eye on it and
   have thousands of soldiers as guards.
   As for the ever-promised 'fusion' ... at this point
   I'm gonna say "FORGET IT". The only places to even
   get a speck over energy input are gigantic laser
   facilities. It's not PRACTICAL in the least with
   anything remotely like our current sci-tech.
   My FEAR is that somebody will figure out some
   Stupid Quantum Trick to flip matter into antimatter,
   and convert like a kilogram during the test  :-)