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From: Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: New fusion power system test creates 300,000 degrees C plasma
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2024 11:57:50 +0100
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On 11/30/24 10:34, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
> Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
> 
>> On 11/29/24 23:03, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
>>> Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 11/29/24 21:04, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
>>>>> Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> [...]
>>>>>> It would be lovely to have 50kWTh or so of PU238 in the basement,
>>>>>> if it could be made cheaply enough. Power for a lifetime for the
>>>>>> whole house and then some.
>>>>>
>>>>> ...but the lifetime might not be very long if any got out.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> If, if. Such arguments can be used to prove anything.
>>>>
>>>> I've got a diesel-powered car in the basement garage. Fully tanked,
>>>> it contains 60kg of fuel, good for 2.4GJ or so. Imagine the havoc
>>>> that could cause, if it got loose. For reference, a stick of dynamite
>>>> is about 1MJ.
>>>
>>> I've seen what happened when builders accidentally set fire to a tank of
>>> diesel far bigger than that.  It burned slowly and steadily until it set
>>> fire to the roof of the house - then the house burned down.  Nobody was
>>> injured or killed, the mess was easily cleaned up and a new house built
>>> on the site.
>>>
>>> It wasn't like the sudden release of energy you would get in a fuel-air
>>> explosion (quite difficult to initiate with diesel without specialist
>>> knowledge) and there wasn't a lot of residual toxic contamination.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> OK. Now back to small 238Pu fuelled units. Why would you expect
>> anything to go wrong if the Pu was contained in a hermetic canister?
> 
> There's always an idiot (or a terrorist) who would challenge themself to
> open it.
> 
> 

Yes, probably. There have been similar incidents in the past.
I'm convinced it can be made safe enough for widespread normal
use, but there will always be some fool somewhere. If we let
that stop us, no technology is safe enough.

Jeroen Belleman