The Fusion Battery - A Cautionary Tale

Just some thoughts on this thread:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

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It was the beginning of a world so bright and filled with hope that nobody could remember how dreary things had been just a few years earlier.

It was simple thermodynamics -- mankind's craving for energy was more than just an addiction (as some people had liked to think), not just a simple matter of using less, of conserving. That route had led to starvation. Society required POWER to survive.

Now, mankind had it -- more POWER than in every single household than a city could use. And before long, each person consumed each day the same BTU count as ten former lifetimes.

Portable fusion power was born. The "fusion battery" could he held in your hand, It was marketed. Distributed. Available. Nearly for free -- to power industry and agriculture and space flight and hand-held flashlights. Enough power to turn deserts into gardens, sand into glass bricks necessary to build a million towers, each 500 stories tall.

Antarctica was warmed. People lived in the clouds. At last -- the promise of hope was fulfilled. Mankind truly thrived.

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It didn't end as well as it had started, unfortunately.

History records the name of the person who brought it all crashing down. We won't mention it here. But you know, he was just a casual hobby scientist with a knack for understanding how things work, taking things apart, and putting it back together in a different way.

One Saturday morning, out of simple curiosity, he explored the fusion battery. He took it apart carefully, and he noted that -- if you simply drilled out the standard manifold a little, and then removed a couple of resistors, you could get a lot more POWER. A whole lot more. And then, if you used that POWER to create a feedback loop to increase the magnetic containment field -- well -- you might have something interesting.

Using simple tools, he modified a fusion battery. He ran an experiment.

We will never know what he thought as he flipped the switch. Was he excited? Hopeful? A bit scared?

We don't know. All we know was that the blast radius of total devastation was ten miles.

All from ONE LITTLE fusion battery -- just one of millions that could be picked up at any store for a few pennies. All of which, with a little knowledge, could be easily modified with household tools.

Yet even then, the total destruction of civilization might still have been avoided -- If only he hadn't published this information to the web BEFORE he ran his experiment.

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a reply to: Axial Leader

S&F

Nice little story.

Would be a good topic for a future contest.

I would call it

THE DOUBLE EDGE OF TECHNOLOGY

P

Thorium will make a big comeback.

a reply to: Axial Leader

That was cool! New technology can be a bit overwhelming especially if it comes on too fast and causes too much change in too little time, you know future shock... I believe our world is heading into uncharted waters technologically speaking. 3D printing, fusion battery, advancements in medicine and biotechnology, all this coupled with the ever expanding and rapidly evolving internet and we have ourselves a High-tech new civilization that will be nearly indistinguishable from anything ever witnessed in our history.

Enjoyed the story, nice little bit of brain food to chew on!

a reply to: LOSTinAMERICA

Grab a star, compress it and put it in a battery. Just don't let the star out. Cool story, bro.

a reply to: intrptr


Thorium would be a better alternative. It uses 95% of the fuel. That alone would stop Chernobyl and Fukushima melt downs. I have to do more research but I've heard it's hard to make nuclear bomb with. I also heard it needs to heated to create the splitting of the atom effect. Here's some pros and cons from www.triplepundit.com...

Pros:

Carbon-free operation
Inherently far safer than conventional light water reactors
Abundant fuel (thorium)
Chemically stable
Currently being developed in China and by US companies like Flibe
Very small amount of low-level radioactive waste. Should be much easier to manage.
Concentrated energy source, requiring far less land than solar
Runs round the clock, good base-load and load-following source
Less suitable for weapons proliferation that conventional nuclear
Relatively low cost and scalable
Could potentially be used in a distributed manner
Technology is currently at the demonstration phase
Requires less cooling water than conventional reactors

Cons

Non-renewable fuel
Still produces hazardous waste (though far less)
Can still facilitate proliferation of nuclear weapons
Quite different than current technology
Primarily conceived as a centralized plant
Like all big plants, could be a terrorist target
Technology not ready for prime time yet
Competes with renewables for investment dollars

Nice!

it could happen.
one day some thing we can Print off 3D.
and it all ends?

a reply to: LOSTinAMERICA

Not going into thorium discussion here. Besides thats Fission, OP's thread is about 'Fusion batteries'.

Fusion is a much more imminently dangerous method of generating electricity for the home… in the city…

But then I always wanted to see huge domes on the horizon, each holding a small sun inside.

a reply to: intrptr

It's okay, I'm content with my bicycle generated power to watch television.

Excellent. I'd hope there is another writing contest by the end of the year and you enter this

a reply to: gorsestar

My strong suit is advanced mathematics. I'll let you write a book.

a reply to: Axial Leader

A Very Good Tale! One which hopefully some could see the Beauty, and Dangers therein!!!

Nice Job!! Syx.

a reply to: Axial Leader

Great! Love it! SUPER!