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I thought of that too, but I wonder how much energy it takes to do fusion research and get the first power-producing fission reactor built from the starting poi
by ufmace 12y ago
I thought of that too, but I wonder how much energy it takes to do fusion research and get the first power-producing fission reactor built from the starting point of knowing nothing about nuclear physics.
- lmm 12y agoI don't think it takes a lot of energy to get a reactor running - there are even natural ones around. Mining involves some chemicals but is fairly low-tech. Enrichment requires a lot of precision in the centrifuges, but not a lot of raw energy; you would need high quality tools and dedicated skilled labour, but you don't need grid power. Most of the high-tech engineering of modern reactors is around safety, but in this scenario presumably you'd just use slave labour. Research is another question, but it's likely that a society that was more heavily based on electricity would discover relativity sooner than we did.
- jhallenworld 12y agoThe centrifuge technique is a recent innovation. The original calutron method was horrendously energy intensive. Also you don't have to enrich uranium at all if you can instead enrich water for a heavy water reactor or use a graphite moderated reactor.