H-3 Helium, the oil industry's nightmare

[Sstashmoo]

Here is something the oil companies don't want to talk about:

"Helium-3 [[He-3) is a light, non-radioactive isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. It is rare on Earth, and is sought for use in nuclear fusion research. The abundance of helium-3 is thought to be greater on the Moon [[embedded in the upper layer of regolith by the solar wind over billions of years) and the solar system's gas giants [[left over from the original solar nebula), though still low in quantity [[28 ppm of lunar regolith is helium-4 and 0.01 ppm is helium-3).[1]"


There have been many claims about the capabilities of Helium-3 power plants. According to proponents, fusion power plants operating on deuterium and helium-3 would offer lower capital and operating costs than their competitors due to less technical complexity, higher conversion efficiency, smaller size, the absence of radioactive fuel, no air or water pollution, and only low-level radioactive waste disposal requirements. Recent estimates suggest that about $6 billion in investment capital will be required to develop and construct the first helium-3 fusion power plant. Financial breakeven at today's wholesale electricity prices [[5 US cents per kilowatt-hour) would occur after five 1-gigawatt plants were on line, replacing old conventional plants or meeting new demand.[49]

Some claim one space shuttle full of this would power our country for one year. What are we waiting for?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3

[Gannon]

I think we need to find Pandora first, don't we?!

[Papasito]

replacing old conventional plants

Sounds cool!

[rb336]

here's an MIT pp on it:

http://web.mit.edu/22.012/www/presen...ersion%202.ppt

[Sstashmoo]

Comparable to $7 a barrel oil.. Might even solve our national debt. We could tell those in the middle east to piss off. No more Coal mine accidents. No air or water Pollutants. No more crude destroying our gulf and beyond. [[They now say there is an unmanageable "plume" of oil below the surface)

[Johnlodge]

It doesn't sound very abundant anywhere, but I suppose it would give NASA an actual mission, instead of the confused nonsense money wasting Bush and Obama have had them doing.

[Bobl]

Hydrogen is everywhere. Why not use it?

[rb336]

hydrogen is all over the place, but it is IN stuff, and in many cases the energy needed to get it out is more than what is available in the H itself

[maxx]

http://www.explainingthefuture.com/helium3.html
"Helium-3 [[He3) is gas that has the potential to be used as a fuel in future nuclear fusion power plants.."
Don't get all excited yet. They are talking FUSION, folks.

"There are thought to be significant supplies on the Moon..."
It's still just a hunch, nothing definite. I thought that's why Bush was talking about going back to colonize the moon. They could use the He3 there if they can design the plant for fusing it.

"This helium-3 could potentially be extracted by heating the lunar dust to around 600 degrees C, before bringing it back to the Earth to fuel a new generation of nuclear fusion power plants..."

And what energy source are they going to use to heat the lunar dust? Probably some sort of nuclear energy unless they mine the stuff close to the hot side of the moon.

"[[Space.com report a suggestion of roughly one million tons of lunar soil being needed to be mined and processed for every 70 tonnes of helium-3 yield), .."
Assuming their estimates of the actual amount of He3 on the moon are accurate. So we'd need around a half million tons of lunar soil, maybe, to yield enough He3 to take care of our energy needs --which continue to grow-- for 1 year.
And we're doing all this for what? So some kids can play video games on the internet?

[gnome]

And after we mine the moon to a sliver, what will we do about the earth's tides?

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "They are talking FUSION, folks."

Is that right?

[Jimaz]

Quote: "They are talking FUSION, folks."

Is that right?

Makes sense. You need heavy atoms to split for fission. You fuse light atoms for fusion, hence the hydrogen bomb.