[ExI] pentagon wants orbiting solar power stations

[hkhenson]

At 01:09 PM 10/13/2007, John K Clark wrote:

>And I'm not dissing insulation or solar heating or getting rid of
>incandescent light bulbs, but as you say all these things are very small
>and if you want to get away from dead dinosaurs somebody is going to
>have find something HUGE.

That's why I worked backwards from doing something HUGE, replacing 
all US coal plants in a year.  That's where 2000 tons a day to GEO comes from.

>It would take 84 square miles of photovoltaic
>cells to equal the energy of one gas station according to the CEO of Exxon.
>In the USA alone there are about 20,000 gas stations.
>
>It seems to me that the only technology able to take a significant chunk out
>of oil right now is nuclear fission. Fusion maybe someday, although from
>the 1950's it's always been 30 years away.

Both fusion and fission generate neutrons.  There is a really big 
problem in that neutrons can be silently diverted into making Pu 
239.  The problem will only be recognized when a city is terror nuked 
without warning.

Also, the biggest use of oil is transport fuel, and that not easy to 
displace with fission.  It can be done, but the resultant fuel will 
be very expensive.  See my discussion on dollar gasoline here a while back.

Keith