Energy Long-Shots that could save the world

While we are rebuilding the entire American energy infrastructure, we must keep a watch for a true long-shot that could change the world. These are silver bullets that would win the sustainable future game and even the development process is immense fun just to follow.

1. Tokamak – This is the latest in a long line of big fusion reactors that would replace current nuclear power plants. Its development is about at the energy break even point. The work has been woefully underfunded, which has resulted in only slow progress. There is no reason to think that this approach will not eventually work, if adequately funded.
2. Breeder Reactors – These replacements for current nuclear plants would make plutonium at the same time they produce energy. The technology has been proven to work. The breakdown that has stopped this idea cold is simply that it is too easy to make bombs from this materials produced in these reactors. This idea is dead for the foreseeable future.
3. Power Space Stations -- These would be huge power generation stations in geosynchronous orbit that would beam energy back to Earth as microwaves. The idea has been around for a long time, but its many problems make this a very long-shot.
4. Cold Fusion – This system claimed to catalyst hydrogen/hydrogen nuclear reaction at room temperature. This was a false start and is now dead.
5. Table Top Fusion – This system using ultra sound to make cavitations bubbles in a fluid containing Deuterium. When the bubbles collapse they generate fantastic temperatures in their micro-domains. So far the early experiments have not been repeatable. This idea is barely hanging on.
6. Helium-3 from the Moon -- This plan would harvest helium-3 from the lunar regolith and burn it in a Tokamak style reactor on Earth. The helium-3 would produce many orders of magnitude less radioactive wastes than fuels available on Earth. This idea requires two breakthroughs and is therefore a double long-shot.
7. Focused Fusion Reactor – This system collapses an intense electric arc to generate the needed heat in nano-domains. It is fueled with common boron and hydrogen and feeds the reaction products through a standing wave tube directly generating electric energy. All the needed pieces of technology have been shown to work separately, but actually energy generation would require balancing them all as a system within a six dimensional space. This is still a promising contender in the fight and would also make a great interplanetary rocket.
8. Bussard Polywell Fusion Reactor – This system uses six super-conducting rings to generate a magnetic field to confine the fusion reaction. It is small in size and under test by the Navy.

Education:

There are many lessons for students in this area. Starting with the idea that they should not despair, we could still win the big one.

Status of Idea:

Several ideas have been built and tested but none have produced reproducible results. A way for students to follow th action and select their favorites is in order.

References:

• Harrison H. Schmitt, Return to the Moon: Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of Space (Springer, 2006)

• National Security Space Office, Space-Based Solar Power, As an Opportunity for Strategic Security
• The Focus Fusion Society
• Bussard Polywell Fusion Reactor
• Sam Schechner, Nuclear Ambitions: Amateur Scientists Get a Reaction from Fusion Wall Street Journal On Line, August 18, 2008; Page A1,
• The Open Source Fuser Research Consortium

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