[OLPC library] OLPC+Polywell Fusion power+EMS/SCADA = Off grid power for rural areas = Better healthcare

[Edward Cherlin]

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell

On Jan 28, 2008 9:59 AM, Brown, Henry, DoIT <Henry.Brown at state.nm.us> wrote:

> OLPC + Fusion/electric power + EMS/SCADA = Off grid power for rural areas
>
> Could OLPC be used to monitor (EMS/SCADA) polywell fusion/electric power
> generator for off-grid power?

The suggestion is absurd. Why try to save a few hundred or even a few
thousand dollars on the computers, particularly when electric power to
run the plant's control system will not be a problem at all? Tiny
keyboards and tiny screens cannot meet industry operational safety and
ergonomic standards.

> Small fusion reactor may allow off-grid  electricity - Polywell Fusion
> reactor

The suggestion is also completely irrelevant. Bussard, the inventor,
says, "...it will take 4-6 years and ca. 100-200 M$ to build the
full-scale plant and demonstrate it." Assuming full funding, which
does not appear likely. This demonstration plant is intended to show
net power generation, but not to show power generation at a
commercially viable level. It would then take 5-10 years more to
design and build production plants, if all went well.

Physicists are not at all in agreement about whether this type of
reactor can achieve net power. "Controversies exist over whether the
ions and electrons will thermalise and whether bremsstrahlung [braking
radiation] losses will emit more energy in an unrecoverable form than
can be produced by the fusion reaction."

It should be noted that, contrary to widespread popular supposition,
fusion power is not 100% clean and green, even though it is nowhere
near as bad as sulfur and mercury from coal or radioactive waste from
fission. Proposed fuels are toxic. Neutrons from the reactions will
create radioactivity in the walls of the reactor. There will be
short-lived radioactive waste products from the reactions themselves.

"Please check your facts before posting nonsense to Usenet."--Beable
van Polasm, alt.religion.kibology
-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay