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> With its promise of limitless energy by breaking down matter itself, nuclear power has long held a utopian promise for humanity What a strange, science ficti

> With its promise of limitless energy by breaking down matter itself, nuclear power has long held a utopian promise for humanity What a strange, science fictional way to describe fission! Surely it's not breaking down matter itself any more than burning wood or coal is. Would you say, about eating a sandwich, that it 'offers the promise of limitless energy by breaking down matter itself'?

foxyv 2y ago
This is in fact how it works. You are taking a fraction of the mass of the Uranium and turning it into energy. Although limitless is a stretch. Maybe 100,000 years or so of energy with known deposits of thorium and uranium. Solar is a bit closer to "Limitless."
- hinkley 2y ago
  By the time solar becomes a problem we have bigger issues. Namely the sun trying to eat the planet.
  - foxyv 2y ago
    Exactly! But at time scales over 10k years you may as well say limitless I suppose. By that point you are either extinct or living in O'Neill cylinders at Lagrange points throughout the Solar system and mining asteroids. If not already traveling to other solar systems. I think the safe bet is extinct, given how things are going right now.
- ElectronCharge 2y ago
  Those “known deposits” don’t include seawater, which is another giant source. It shouldn’t matter anyways, surely fusion will be here sooner rather than later…and possibly LENR.
  - foxyv 2y ago
    No kidding, and far before that point we will be having to build giant radiators to expel excess thermal energy or risk cooking our planet. The future is going to be absolutely nuts if we don't end up killing everyone.
ElectronCharge 2y ago
Nuclear fission is a fundamentally different process from oxidation (burning). It produces a much higher proportional power output. The usual figure given is fission fuel is about 1 million times as power dense as chemical fuels like gasoline.

foxyv 2y ago

This is in fact how it works. You are taking a fraction of the mass of the Uranium and turning it into energy. Although limitless is a stretch. Maybe 100,000 years or so of energy with known deposits of thorium and uranium. Solar is a bit closer to "Limitless."

hinkley 2y ago
By the time solar becomes a problem we have bigger issues. Namely the sun trying to eat the planet.
- foxyv 2y ago
  Exactly! But at time scales over 10k years you may as well say limitless I suppose. By that point you are either extinct or living in O'Neill cylinders at Lagrange points throughout the Solar system and mining asteroids. If not already traveling to other solar systems. I think the safe bet is extinct, given how things are going right now.
ElectronCharge 2y ago
Those “known deposits” don’t include seawater, which is another giant source. It shouldn’t matter anyways, surely fusion will be here sooner rather than later…and possibly LENR.
- foxyv 2y ago
  No kidding, and far before that point we will be having to build giant radiators to expel excess thermal energy or risk cooking our planet. The future is going to be absolutely nuts if we don't end up killing everyone.

ElectronCharge 2y ago

Nuclear fission is a fundamentally different process from oxidation (burning). It produces a much higher proportional power output. The usual figure given is fission fuel is about 1 million times as power dense as chemical fuels like gasoline.