Re: New fusion power system test creates 300,000 degrees C plasma

On 11/29/24 23:03, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
 

On 11/29/24 21:04, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
>
[...]

It would be lovely to have 50kWTh or so of PU238 in the basement,
if it could be made cheaply enough. Power for a lifetime for the
whole house and then some.

>
...but the lifetime might not be very long if any got out.
>
>

>
If, if. Such arguments can be used to prove anything.
>
I've got a diesel-powered car in the basement garage. Fully tanked,
it contains 60kg of fuel, good for 2.4GJ or so. Imagine the havoc
that could cause, if it got loose. For reference, a stick of dynamite
is about 1MJ.

 
I've seen what happened when builders accidentally set fire to a tank of
diesel far bigger than that.  It burned slowly and steadily until it set
fire to the roof of the house - then the house burned down.  Nobody was
injured or killed, the mess was easily cleaned up and a new house built
on the site.
 
It wasn't like the sudden release of energy you would get in a fuel-air
explosion (quite difficult to initiate with diesel without specialist
knowledge) and there wasn't a lot of residual toxic contamination.
 
 

 
OK. Now back to small 238Pu fuelled units. Why would you expect
anything to go wrong if the Pu was contained in a hermetic canister?