NASA's "Prometheus" program in jeopardy.

[SmallTimePerson]

"fairyfloss generator"

fairyfloss lol.
Maybe they can start off in fairyfloss machines, then popcorn.
Monopolise the confectionary market...

[Whatazarian]

Yay for nuclear power!
Plus, if we have nuke plants available, it makes fusion a much more attainable goal. And before I get a bunch of people all over me saying "fission and fusion are different, n00b!", let me explain.

Nuclear power makes a lot of electricity. A lot of a lot. At the moment, to get a fusion reactor to run requires a lot of energy. As much as can be produced by a nuclear reactor, in fact. So the more nuke plants we have available, the more cheap power we have available, and the more practical a fusion plant is. What we can do is put the fusion plant next to the fission plant, and we plug the fusion plant into the fission plant to start it up. If the fusion plant has to just draw off the grid, and for some reason the fusion plant goes offline after fusion plants are providing the bulk of our power, it'd be a hell of a job to get them started again, since there'd be a limited external power supply to use to get them started.

I've just realised that it's early in the morning and a lot of the stuff I'm posting doesn't necisarily make sense. So I'm going to stop now and do damage control later. =P

Your method is inefficient, The amount of energy to start the fusion reaction would be more than it would produce, by this I mean that the fission plant alone would produce more energy than the two working synonymously.

[Lord §okar]

For one synonymous means two words that have comparatively similar definitions but are written differently. For two the amount of energy that can theoretically be generated by a fusion reactor far outstrips the amount required to keep it running, hence the pursuit of stable fusion.

[lokiprime]

But what if something goes wrong? There's no guarantee that it wont, accidents happen whether you like them or not, better safe than sorry.

Any Accedent in space can be deadly. Especially anything with as much power output as a Nuclear Reactor (or Future technologies which are likely to have a higher power output). That is the reason for full testing of a technology before its use. Dont forget the Current Space shuttle is not perfect there have been Explosions and Accedents that have caused deaths, not to mention the near misses that have also occoured.

I dont think that anything as big as this kind of project can be deemed 100% safe, all that TPTB can do is Do as much research as possible and come up with as many safeguards as possible. And I believe that is the most that we can also ask of them.

[Insolent_Tauri]

InsolentTauri:

I'll go with 2, I haven't done much research on Fission, other than what I've read about it. My bad.

Dude, if you're man enough to admit you didn't know something, you have nothing to be sorry for. Usually when I put something like that on the 'net all I get is an angry, ignorant, poorly-spelled response. I like it here, I think I'll stay. =)

I think some company should start pushing betavoltaics. Betavoltaics are neat.

And Whatazarian, what Lord Sokar said is what I'm rellying on. When we get fusion right, it'll put out WAY more than it sucks in. Potentially two to four orders of magnitude more.

[helio9]

maybe in 2035 we could by them off the corner store (finally watch Back to the future one. Seen 2 and 3 ages ago). The oinly problem is convincing the public that they can't be used in nuclear weapons by terrorists

There are easier (and more effective) ways for terrorists to hurt us...

[SmallTimePerson]

There are easier (and more effective) ways for terrorists to hurt us...

but the anti party would go "we dont want terrorists getting hold of nuclear devices for use in weapons". The nuclear "stuff" (technical i know) wouldn't be very damaging, but since when has politics been about the truth

[Gate_traveler]

well i say make the bateries anyway and when the terrorists buy the 20 billion bateries its gonna take em to make the bomb we will know cause it looks kinda weird when hakmead comes in to the local wal-mart and buys all the the "nuclear" bateries they have. because if im not mistaken it would take a lot of the Betavoltaics material to make a workable bomb. hell id think it would be simpler to buy up all the fireworks at a stand and make a feasable bomb.

[SmallTimePerson]

well i say make the bateries anyway and when the terrorists buy the 20 billion bateries its gonna take em to make the bomb we will know cause it looks kinda weird when hakmead comes in to the local wal-mart and buys all the the "nuclear" bateries they have. because if im not mistaken it would take a lot of the Betavoltaics material to make a workable bomb. hell id think it would be simpler to buy up all the fireworks at a stand and make a feasable bomb.

im pretty sure that its not the right radioactive materials, and they wouldn't need 20 billion

[Jarnin]

im pretty sure that its not the right radioactive materials, and they wouldn't need 20 billion

betavoltaics can use any material that emits beta radiation, the most commonly used is tritium. Tritium is also used in hydrogen bombs.

I'm not too familiar with how much tritium is used in your average hydrogen bomb, but I'm guesing it's alot. It also needs to be replaced regularly; it has a tendency to turn into helium-3.

[SmallTimePerson]

I'm not too familiar with how much tritium is used in your average hydrogen bomb, but I'm guesing it's alot. It also needs to be replaced regularly; it has a tendency to turn into helium-3.

it is forced together with detrium (i think its what its called) due to the explosion. They are both hydrogen atoms with extra neutrons (i think) that when forced together start colliding with other atoms that then lose their extra things and those extra things collide into more atoms and those extra things multiply and cause extreme heat and light.

tritium is safe (unless its in a H bomb) so it is used in beltavoltiacs.

Other substances like Cobalt-90 on the other hand arent so friendly

[Three PhDs]

Very true, while having harmful by products, nuclear energy is extremely safe if in a correctly built, controlled, and maintained reactor. The only reason the US Navy uses nuclear power today is that they have been careful and have never had an accident. NASA needs to adapt the same philosophy.

If you set aside Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the safety record of nuclear [power] is really very good.
-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, June 2001

Contrary to Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's assessment, nuclear power and nuclear devices have not enjoyed a safe history at United States facilities. At least 50 nuclear weapons lie on the ocean bottom due to U.S. and Soviet accidents. A large number of incidents mar the safety record of nuclear plants, facilities, bombers and ships, of which Three Mile Island is only the best remembered. Numerous deaths and injuries resulted from these incidents. In addition to accidents, the day-to-day operations related to nuclear materials processing and handling have led to massive contamination of this country's landscape. The U.S. Department of Energy spends over $4 billion each year for the restoration and management of sites contaminated by nuclear materials. Their 2000 Federal budget noted: "The Environmental Management (EM) program is responsible for addressing the environmental legacy resulting from the production of nuclear weapons. The nuclear weapons complex generated waste, pollution, and contamination that pose unique problems, including unprecedented volumes of contaminated soil and water, radiological hazards from special nuclear material, and a vast number of contaminated structures. Factories, laboratories, and thousands of square miles of land were devoted to producing tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. Much of this is largely maintained, decommissioned, managed, and remediated by the EM program, which is sometimes referred to as the 'cleanup program.' EM's responsibilities include facilities and sites in 30 states and one territory, and occupy an area equal to that of Rhode Island and Delaware combined - or about 2.1 million acres."

[aAnubiSs]

Tritium isn't often used in thermonuclear bombs due to it's low half-life (12 years) They use a Lithium isotope which turns into Tritium during fusion a by-product of this is Tritium which is then used for a D-T reaction.

This ofc happens in milliseconds

[SmallTimePerson]

. The nuclear weapons complex generated waste, pollution, and contamination that pose unique problems, including unprecedented volumes of contaminated soil and water, radiological hazards from special nuclear material, and a vast number of contaminated structures.

just adding to you contamination thing
WA governement has been trying for a few years now to make the desert of WA a dumping ground for depleted Uranium. It would add billions of dollars to the state's economy. Its amazing how many countries like nuclear power, but want to get rid of the waste

[helio9]

betavoltaics can use any material that emits beta radiation, the most commonly used is tritium. Tritium is also used in hydrogen bombs.

I'm not too familiar with how much tritium is used in your average hydrogen bomb, but I'm guesing it's alot. It also needs to be replaced regularly; it has a tendency to turn into helium-3.

Doesn't really matter. The fact is, all H-bombs (that I know of anyways) have a regular fission bomb as a catalyst. So the terrorists would need to build that first, with conventional U-235 or Plutonium. And if they can do that, then we're screwed already. Its highly unlikely that they'd go through the trouble of building a full H-bomb (and its probably quite complicated) if they had a regular fission bomb anyways. The nightmare is a suitcase nuke going off in a place as dense has manhattan where it could potentially kill millions and cripple the economy, and fusion is not required on the part of terrorists to accomplish this.

EDIT - The reason for this is that in order to fusion to occur, an environment of very high pressure and temperature is required, this can only be achieved by a nuclear fission explosion.