[tasmodevil44]

I think that a virtually unlimited supply of cheap electric power from focus fusion may open-up all sorts of possibilities for solving the global warming problem.

      Replacing the burning of coal is one of them.Strip-mining also destroys the land,contaminates water supplies,and uses-up valuable carbon that could be put to better use making plastics,rubber and chemicals.

      But focus fusion could also complement other things as well.It could also greatly enhance hemp cultivation for all sorts of uses.The Great Plains and American Midwest is already a possible major growing region.So is the Australian Outback.But focus fusion could open-up even more industrial hemp regions.A virtually unlimited supply of cheap electricity means we could produce virtually unlimited fresh water from the ocean.Dump this on the Sahara Desert of North Africa...and viola! Still yet another major hemp region for food,fuels,chemicals,and all kinds of building and construction materials.All the while taking even more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

      Cheap solar power could also come "riding-in on the back" of focus fusion.Large-scale fusion would be be great for large-scale base-load power for energy intensive industrial manufacturing processes on a large scale.But some people would still like to "pull-the-plug"on the utility and have independent,decentralized power.But it is very energy intensive to extract pure,refined silicon from sand and rocks to make photovoltaics.The storage medium...whether it be batteries,ultra-capacitors,or compressed air would also be very energy intensive to mass produce.But not all that expensive to manufacture if focus fusion supplied the enormous power to do it.All these things could reduce the need for fossil fuels and global warming even further.

[Borek]

As long as the technology doesn't exist you can write whatever you want. Once it will get to some maturity level it will be possible to judge.

[tasmodevil44]

borek,I don't know how much of this may be correct,but according to Eric Lerner and others working on focus fusion,they are no longer chasing a moving target(that keeps moving farther into the future)like fusion researchers have in the past.Unlike the extremely expensive magnetic confinement approach as well as others,they think they can finally have a working model in a few years with only a few more millions investment.They have already achieved plasma temperatures well in excess of a billion degrees and are trying to push it even farther to over two billoin.I sure hope they are successful.

      Now that it's no longer a moving target,Eric Lerner and others now claim the biggest obstacle now is politics.The other fusion competitors don't like being side-stepped by an easier,cheaper method that required far less research money.From what I can tell,the prospects look good and some people don't like that.Everybody is for fusion so long as it remains a moving taget that stays in the future.

[tasmodevil44]

There is still yet another way nuclear power can be a complement to industrial hemp(thorium power,focus fusion,or some other advanced nuclear that does not create as much nuclear waste).Renewable oil and gas can be made by pyrolysis:heating hemp in an oxygen deficient atmosphere.This is basically how nature made fossil fuel to begin with.Only instead of the Earth's heat,we speed-up the process.

      Unfortunately,the necessary thermal energy must come from somewhere.This usually entails burning fuel to make fuel:higher costs and poor economics due to the law of dimminishing returns.But unlimited cheap electric power from a nuclear source could be used instead to cook algae,hemp,switchgrass or whatever else into fuel...eliminating the need to burn fuel in order to produce fuel.

      After renewable oil and gas has been made from hemp assisted by nuclear-generated electricity,what do you do with remaining charcoal?

      Make super-strong graphite fibers from the remaining hemp charcoal.Automobile composites for car bodies is not the only application.By far the most important use may be concrete composite material.This would result in more sequestration of carbon after the renewable fuel was made from the nuclear-assisted hemp.

      As for the hemp,the DEA continues to be a real sticker about it.I think focus fusion is almost ready...provided not too many more unforseen obstacles. 

[Borek]

they think they can finally have a working model in a few years with only a few more millions investment

I have seen similar claims many times before. Some of the turned out to be true, most didn't. Now read my previous post

[tasmodevil44]

If the focus fusion device does not work-out...and the government won't legalize hemp...then an alternative method could possibly be thorium nuclear power to cook switchgrass into automotive fuel.A company in Washington,D.C. has figured-out how to convert conventional reactors to thorium with very little modifications.They have been collaborating with the Russians on converting some of their reactors.

      But Eric Lerner is confident the focus fusion device will work.Much of the technology already exists.If sucessful the unlimited supply of cheap power could be an enormous complementary aid to the pyrolytic cooking of organic matter into boifuels.But then again,like you say,this may be still yet another one of those millions of things that never quite panned-out.

      But infrastructure would still have to be scaled-up to an enterprise bigger than building China's Great Wall to run so many cars and trucks.The problem with most alternative energy schemes is that the initial investment itself involves more energy expenditure and carbon dioxide release.

      In addition,the blacklight phenomenon discovered by Randall Mills could be still yet another alternative thermal energy source in place of the focus device.However,it is very controversial,for many physicists consider it a violation of quantum mechanics and how we know things work so far to date.I'm just not all too sure about this fractional quantium transition thing myself.A man by the name of Robert Park said that it's tantamount to pure scientific quackery and fraud.How can an electron get any closer to a hydrogen nucleus than what it is?I have my serious doubts about this. 

[tasmodevil44]

Borek,when considering how many years they've been chasing a moving target...and all the bold and grandiose pronouncements over the years...I can understand you have every right to be skeptical of claims by Eric Lerner and the focus device(as for myself,I keep trying to be an open-minded eternal optimist):"Oh no...not another one of those wacky mad scientist schemes to achieve breakeven!"

      Eureka!I've got it!I finally figured it out how the Robbin Williams flubmobile in the Hollywood fantasy movie works:a catalyst that causes nuclear fusion at ordinary room temperature is added to ordinary rubber.This imparts extraordinary energy in every every bounce!    

[Borek]

Note: I am not assuming they will not achieve their target. I wish them best. But there is Polish saying "Don't say hop before you jumped". I wait till they land on the other side.

So far 1:0 for Poland

[enahs]

So far 1:0 for Poland

Ehh, it is not just a Polish saying. Well, not that exact phrase, but the sentiment anyway.

So, it is 1:0 for common sense. 

[tasmodevil44]

I'm always the eternal optimist who is open-minded about revolutionary ideas which others are slow to accept.Even ones that seem a little hair-brained at first.

      However,I'm starting to ask questions and wonder about the feasibility of the focus fusion device myself.For example,I'd like to ask Eric Lerner and his fellow colleagues about the longevity of the electrodes.Considering the high voltage,high current densities,and high working temperature of the plasma,wouldn't they get eroded away and eaten-up?

      Eric Lerner claims that maximum operation conditions would entail two kilocycles of plasma compression/alpha emission per second.I don't know if the electrodes could withstand such extreme punishment very long...even if made of special high technology material that is super strong and temperature resilient.Only time will tell if this will do anything positive about energy problems and climate change.