Sunday, January 15, 2023

Thermonuclear assisted Geothermal

Eddie Teller figured out fusion power generations ago: nuke the underdark. Title h/t Alex Knochel @Quantensalat.

The "Peaceful Nuclear Explosion Reactor" was to do, Orion-style, 20-50 kT nuclear explosions every couple hours in a 100 m salt dome. The steam would give off >1 GWe. Project Gnome tested this with 3.1 kT - under New Mexico, as usual. President Ray Gun revived the concept in the 1980s as HEDEF with subGnome 2 kT nukes.

... which, as noted, violates that Test Ban under treaty. So that Administration backed off, over its second term.

But inasmuch as Russia, Iran, Israel, and North Korea laugh at treaties and as we're not seeing much interest in them from China or Pakistan either; we look like suckers for not just doing this anyway.

Looks really good for Ceres, Callisto, and points outward.

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