3 ms·
To illustrate this point, producing all of the electricity the United States uses in a year by D-T fusion would give around 20-100 kg of helium depending on eff
by scythe 6y ago
To illustrate this point, producing all of the electricity the United States uses in a year by D-T fusion would give around 20-100 kg of helium depending on efficiency.
- m4rtink 6y agoI wonder if you could run the process energy negative to produce a lot of helium instead of energy ?
- eloff 6y agoThe answer should be clear from the quantities in the parent comment. No. Not economically viable at any plausible price.
- TomMarius 6y agoMaybe we will start projects with enormous power requirements?
- vilhelm_s 6y agoHow do you get this number? Googling a bit, the D-T reaction produces 17.59 MeV per helium atom, so it should yield 17.59 MeV / (helium-4 atomic mass) = 0.117 TWh/kg in thermal energy per kg of helium produced. The U.S. electricity production in 2019 was 4,118 TWh [1] and 4118 TWh / 0.117 (TWh/kg) = 35,196 kg. If we assume some inefficency in the thermal->electricity conversion, I guess it should produce at least 70,000 kg/year. [1] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3