4 ms·

He is not renewable, but is self generating through every alpha emitting mineral in the Earth slipping through cracks until trapped in a gas chamber. And there

He is not renewable, but is self generating through every alpha emitting mineral in the Earth slipping through cracks until trapped in a gas chamber. And there's a lot of alpha emitting nuclei on Earth.

perihelions 3y ago
I believe there's a lot less then the current production rate. The atmospheric loss rate is 50 grams/second, 1,600 tonnes/year, so the radiogenic production should balance that. The production rate is 169 million m^3 or 29,000 tonnes. (Should be balanced because we're at equilibrium, there's no other significant source, solar wind is comparatively small, and the atmospheric reservoir is large relative to the short-lived human contribution). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_escape#Dominant_atmospheric_escape_and_loss_processes_in_the_Solar_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_escape#Dominant_at... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium#Modern_extraction_and_distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium#Modern_extraction_and_d...
colechristensen 3y ago
I did the calculations once and the amount of fusion needed to produce the current rate of consumption of helium would more or less equal the energy received from the sun over the entire planet. In other words we'd need fusion plants producing enough energy to boil the oceans and kill us all. Of course that's different than the energy economics of decay, but still the sense being that there are scales involved which don't necessarily mean that production would be even nearby by dozens of orders of magnitude.
- magicalhippo 3y ago
  Sun is full of it, just shove a pipe into it and pump out what we need. And no need to mess with "blue hydrogen", this will give us virtually unlimited amounts of yellow hydrogen as a byproduct.
  - zozbot234 3y ago
    This. The heat won't be an issue if you do it at night.
  - thsksbd 3y ago
    I love it, but don't you think we'll need to pipe the trace amounts of O2 to burn the yellow H2 with?
- thsksbd 3y ago
  Who said anything about fusion? Fusion's ridiculous. Fission too. My point is that even if we, the humans of the 21st century, can run out of He, the Earth can't. Even us humans can't run out of it - we'll boil off the atmosphere with CO2 before we run out of CH4 wells.

perihelions 3y ago

I believe there's a lot less then the current production rate. The atmospheric loss rate is 50 grams/second, 1,600 tonnes/year, so the radiogenic production should balance that. The production rate is 169 million m^3 or 29,000 tonnes. (Should be balanced because we're at equilibrium, there's no other significant source, solar wind is comparatively small, and the atmospheric reservoir is large relative to the short-lived human contribution). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_escape#Dominant_atmospheric_escape_and_loss_processes_in_the_Solar_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_escape#Dominant_at... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium#Modern_extraction_and_distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium#Modern_extraction_and_d...

colechristensen 3y ago

I did the calculations once and the amount of fusion needed to produce the current rate of consumption of helium would more or less equal the energy received from the sun over the entire planet. In other words we'd need fusion plants producing enough energy to boil the oceans and kill us all. Of course that's different than the energy economics of decay, but still the sense being that there are scales involved which don't necessarily mean that production would be even nearby by dozens of orders of magnitude.

magicalhippo 3y ago
Sun is full of it, just shove a pipe into it and pump out what we need. And no need to mess with "blue hydrogen", this will give us virtually unlimited amounts of yellow hydrogen as a byproduct.
- zozbot234 3y ago
  This. The heat won't be an issue if you do it at night.
- thsksbd 3y ago
  I love it, but don't you think we'll need to pipe the trace amounts of O2 to burn the yellow H2 with?
thsksbd 3y ago
Who said anything about fusion? Fusion's ridiculous. Fission too. My point is that even if we, the humans of the 21st century, can run out of He, the Earth can't. Even us humans can't run out of it - we'll boil off the atmosphere with CO2 before we run out of CH4 wells.