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As a bonus it produces helium, which we've been running low on right? Break out the party balloons!
by foreigner 7y ago
As a bonus it produces helium, which we've been running low on right? Break out the party balloons!
- StavrosK 7y agoAll fusion produces helium, though. I don't think anyone is looking into fusing heavier atoms.
- jabl 7y agoIf you look at the nuclear binding energy curve (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_binding_energy#/media/File:Binding_energy_curve_-_common_isotopes.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_binding_energy#/media/... ) you'll see a nice bump there for He4. So there's no gain in fusing heavier stuff.
- logfromblammo 7y agoNot unless you could somehow bang three of them together at once to get to C-12. That seems unlikely with current technology. We can't even get C-N-O cycle fusion in the dinky little star we live next to. So that's at least 20 years away from being 20 years away from being 20 years away. And you could just make more alpha particles, anyway. It's not like the universe is short on hydrogen.
- shireboy 7y agoThat shortage is mostly a myth: https://www.wired.com/2016/06/dire-helium-shortage-vastly-inflated/ https://www.wired.com/2016/06/dire-helium-shortage-vastly-in...
- homonculus1 7y agoSo what happens after 117 years?
- DennisP 7y agoIf we get compact working fusion reactors, what probably happens is we import as much helium as we want from Jupiter.
- Throwaway984332 7y agoIt's a bit weird to say we're running out of He, not unless we're running out of CH4. Which, theoretically we are. But practically, with CH4, our modern concern is not running out of it, but the associated GHG emissions of producing and burning it. So we won't run out of He, so much as stop producing it.
- escape_goat 7y agoIt might be less confusing to refer to 'natural gas' in this context, rather than CH4.
- SamBam 7y ago'Natural gas' and not 'cow burps'?
- escape_goat 7y agoNot cow burps. Cow burps do not contain helium gas. Helium is formed as a product of natural radioactive decay. It tends to get trapped within the earth in the same ways that natural gas does. Thus, helium is often present as an impurity in natural gas. This is what the previous commentator was referring to, but of course, CH4 is not actually a very good source of helium.
- deftnerd 7y agoCH4, aka Methane, is one Carbon atom and four Hydrogen atoms. There is no Helium in Methane, just Hydrogen.
- ncmncm 7y agoHelium is a byproduct of natural gas extraction. Radon too.