Greasemonkey I have a feeling the problems will arise more from security of the radioactive materials, than it will with how to actually make it work.
I have a feeling the problems will arise more from security of the radioactive materials, than it will with how to actually make it work.
What radioactive materials? I haven't read the article, but fusion and fission are different things. The sun fuses non-radioactive hydrogen, and just uses an enormous amount to create the fusing pressure.. Our fusion bombs on the other hand, from what I remember from high school, use 2 uranium or a bunch of plutonium bombs, to fuse hydrogen.
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
Hope, hype and reality.
Newsreels of America's first nuclear fission electric generating station showed President Eisenhower flipping the switch. Narrators told a future where electricty would be so cheap there would be no meters. You would pay only a flat monthly electric bill.
For speculation's sake, assume fusion will be different.
How do you convert heat into mechanical energy?
If fusion makes electricity as cheap as was hoped for in Eisenhower's presidency do you string wire and run electric locomotives?
Do you put fusion generators on the rails to provide power? It would save the horrendous cost of stringing wires overhead.
If on the rails, do you generate steam to power a generator that feeds traction motors? A turbine would probably be used to spin the generator. What of excess heat?
Early diesels were huge. So were early computers. If the pattern of size reduction follows with fusion, what locomotive engineering possiblities open up?
Safety is an issue that must be addressed. Burning tank cars of crude in a North Dakota field would be a loose spike by comparison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z59AGIb_F5s
Larry's caveats for using this as motive power are valid ones (though the use of more than one unit--two at most, to reap the advantages of DPU technology--would probably never be necessary).However, the article just said that the reactor will fit on the back of a truck, not that it would be powering said truck. It might be just being transported from place to place to provide stationary power. Perhaps the concern would be how compatible it would be with a railroad operating environment (they don't always get it--Caterpillar has yet to come up with an ideal railroad engine, for example).The power would probably be enough to provide HEP for passenger purposes in any unit, and to power a good-sized passenger-train consist up to any usable speeds.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
I think they need to perfect the one that fits in a large building before they build one that fits in a truck (or locomotive).
One derailment might just make Lac Megantic seem to have been just a wet match stick on a breezy day.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
I suspect that a major concern will be how many people it takes to run it.
If a two person crew can take several such units out and operate them just as they do Diesels, there could be hope.
Of course, cost, safety, and ROI will be concerns.
And, you're still constrained by physics. The steel wheel can only produce so much traction, and I suspect we're close to maxing that formula out right now.
Of course, you can always adopt a "mother and slug" configuration, which might help alleviate the traction issue by spreading the apparently phenomenal power a fusion power source can generate over several units.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Building on more than 60 years of fusion research, the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works approach to compact fusion is a high beta concept. This concept uses a high fraction of the magnetic field pressure, or all of its potential, so we can make our devices 10 times smaller than previous concepts. That means we can replace a device that must be housed in a large building with one that can fit on the back of a truck.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html
If it will fit on a truck, it will fit within a locomotive frame. If continued research is fruitful, how much smaller can you go?
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