News UK power cut: National Grid promises to learn lessons from blackout

[Urwumpe]

At the pace things are going maybe we'll be able to extract some from the far side of the Moon in 500 years or so...

Or get it fresh from the tap by harvesting the solar wind...

 

[Artlav]

and perfectly neutron free, if filtering the resulting helium-4 from the plasma would be perfectly fast.

AFAIK, it's not going to be perfect - there are other less likely reactions alongside every aneutronic one, and there is no ways to stop them. So it would be like 10% of the flux rather than zero.

 

[Urwumpe]

AFAIK, it's not going to be perfect - there are other less likely reactions alongside every aneutronic one, and there is no ways to stop them. So it would be like 10% of the flux rather than zero.

Well, the reaction of Helium 3 with itself produces two protons, one helium-4 atom and a lot of gamma rays. Only the gamma Rays would really be capable of producing new neutrons, the charged particles could be kept in the plasma and separated from the fuel by their different charge to mass ratio.


The problem is: We would need to harvest 2 billion tons of lunar soil every year, just to produce enough Helium-3 to allow producing enough power just for the USA. At perfect efficiency.



Wouldn't work, we would need a better source for it. Or a different reaction with more chance of neutron production...


Did somebody already investigate if the strong neutron reaction of a fusion reactor could be used for burning nuclear waste? Like putting tiles of nuclear waste into the reactor chamber and let them absorb neutrons, while cooling them (and produce more energy from the absorbers?)

 

[Notebook]

Didcot power station: Power cut as cooling towers demolished

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-49375917

National Grid not having much luck lately.

 

[Notebook]

Analysis
By Dominic O'Connell, Today programme business presenter
Like the opening scene of an Agatha Christie novel, National Grid's preliminary investigation into the power cut 10 days ago is replete with clues and plausible villains, but lacks a final verdict on who or what cut the power.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49402296

Well, they've got a couple of weeks to come up with something.