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AI Helping Fusion Reactor Technology

AI software is being utilized in nuclear fusion development. The AI-based software module is being developed as a potential solution to identify complex containment field issues. Thus helping to maintain plasma, that resides in the reactor’s core, under control.[1]

This development is a leap closer to viable fusion reactors that produce cleaner energy than current fission reactors.

Just to clarify, there are two main types of power generation reactors being discussed here:

1. ‘Old’ fission reactors are currently in full use today. These use uranium rods and fresh water. The water is super-heated and creates tritiated wastewater in the process. The poisonous wastewater is a major concern, that is the main focus for many energy scientists.

2. ‘New’ in-development fusion reactor that uses plasma in a magnetic containment field which does not titrate water in the energy generation process. Another concern is to not use more energy in generating the hot plasma than the reactor output can produce. This is something that has been tested on a very small scale by ITER. ITER is currently working on a larger-scale test reactor.

The current ‘older’ reactors use nuclear fission with uranium rods. Part of the power generation process uses water which turns, otherwise drinkable, water into poison. The wastewater is radioactive for 12.5 years but will stay undrinkable forever.[2]

[1, Scientists May Have Tamed Fusion’s #1 Nemesis, by Darren Orf, https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a46973142/nuclear-fusion/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-gb, accessed 3rd March 2024]

[2, see below…]

Dangers of Tritiated Water Dumped in the Sea

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Carbon Output from Humans Just Breathing?

The word put out on the street, so to speak, in the UK: It is better for health to go on walks rather than runs… Hum building a theory here on CO2 output from humans…

“The average person exhales approximately 2.3 pounds of CO2 per day.”[1]

I understand that figure is with minimum exercise from looking at their calculator on the 8billontrees.com site (see [1] below). (2.3 pounds in kg is 1.04326 kg).

According to Worldometer on a Google search, there are 7.888 billion people alive on Earth at present. (July 2023)

7.888 billion x 1.04326 kg = 8.229 (3dp) billion kg (or 8 million metric tonnes PER DAY) in just breathing air in and a percentage of CO2 out.

“In 2019, humans emitted more than 35 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. It can be difficult to picture a “ton” of a gas like CO2, […].“[2]

So in 2019, 95 million (not sure if it is metric tonnes or US or UK ton???) of CO2 and other gases per day from burning right?

4.7 million metric tonnes of fart per day based on 1.2 litres per day worldwide (based on the density of methane, but there is a mix of gases not just methane).[3]

Summary Calcs

8.2 + 4.7 = 12.9 million metric tonnes of gases from humans (total world population per day) (not including anything else i.e. motor cars).

12.9 * 365 = 4.708 billion tonnes of gases per year for the total population on Earth breathing and farting (don’t get me wrong this is a very loose calculation and most likely got it a bit wrong somewhere). In any case, kiss goodbye to ‘carbon neutral’, another government blunder.

References

[1, How Much CO2 Do Humans Produce? Human CO2 Exhale Calculator,by Georgette Kilgore for 8billiontrees.com, accessed 26/07/2023]

[2, https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-much-ton-carbon-dioxide, accessed 26th July 2023]

[3, Ten facts about why we fart, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321866, accessed 26th July 2023

Side Notes

JUST A SIDE ISSUE HOW MANY HUMANS CAN YOU HAVE BEFORE THERE’S NOT ENOUGH BREATHABLE AIR? Here is an article about that: https://www.greenlineprint.com/blog/is-there-enough-oxygen-for-a-growing-population (Be aware that trees are not the only oxygen-generating plant life.)

I could take my thoughs into a more scentific approach but I probably need more oxygen. 🙂

This is all about humans and does not include all animal life or the natural recycling of gases via plants etc…

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Elon Musk, Turning Bond Super Villian?

Pumping chemicals into the sea and Cornwall, England should probably never appear in the same sentence let alone in an article. The idea of pumping out these chemicals seems monstrous. However, it is my understanding that the waste output from water companies already has Magnesium Hydroxide in it[1]. So was the news about Magnesium Hydroxide just a throw-away checky remark from Musk gone too far?

England will not say no to Canada because they have the best Uranium for our nuclear power plants. 🙂 Why else would we risk destroying Cornwall a worldwide known holiday hot spot? Will it be just Magnesium Hydroxide or is it 10-20% something worse? Did they include the disposal of all the dead fish and oceanic wildlife in this deal?

Another related article: What is Ocean Acidification?

Canadian firm wants to dump Chinese chemicals in Cornish Bay with no EIA

(Just watch out because I think some rich people are trying to paint Elon Musk as a supervillain… to damage their reputation. Note, I don’t know him personally.)

[1, 13th July’22, What is Magnesium Hydroxide, https://www.wwdmag.com/editorial-topical/what-is-articles/article/21004707/what-is-magnesium-hydroxide]

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Every Government’s Nightmare

The age-old idea that ageing is a problem when really it is a good solution to population overgrowth. The ageing problem is probably for the rich though. Watch ‘Interview with a Vampire‘ and think about how depressing it would be to live for hundreds of years. Hopefully not as a vampire though. Also, ‘Jupiter Ascending‘ is another good reference.

Research and Slowing Aging Process

See also, Seven Ages of Man. This is a historic understanding of ageing as such, there is a focus on men but women go through ages too. Men and women are determined via chromosomes.

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Uranium Mining

Replacing vehicles with electric ones means using more uranium for nuclear power stations to generate at least some of the terawatts the UK needs. Unfortunately, the world is running out of oil-based fuels like diesel in the next 50 years or so. Diesel is used by uranium mining vehicles. Oops.

I can see how being a world leader is not fun at all.

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Energy Crisis Perfect Storm By Year 2100

We will likely run out of oil by year 2070.

The plan is to use electric vehicles including HGVs. Obviously cars will have to reduce because we cannot make enough power.

Nuclear power is likely to stop due to lack of nuclear materials by year 2100.

There will not be enough energy to power our HGVs.

Without HGVs, we cannot distribute food to the cities or supply the farms with vital fertilizers. We cannot use the factories we used to.

To make electricity we always have to take something out of the environment and we are taking too much.

We will have a technology blackout. Most knowledge is stored on the internet.

There will be a world-wide apocalypse.

Battle Plan

  • Reduce power consumption and start to find ways to do things without power.
  • Start learning these things now to teach our grandchildren.
  • Transfer useful information to a medium we can read but does not deteriorate too quickly, not plastic – due to the bacteria.
  • Stop ignoring the problem. The problems of tomorrow are the problems of today.
  • Reduce population by restricting new childbirth worldwide.

Sometimes the way back is the way forward.

Some Positives

Some organisations are saying we may have more uranium available from other areas, for example, the deep sea.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-will-global-uranium-deposits-last/

The above article is older information and I am still looking over the issues. They suggest a very long period of nuclear power capability.

This may buy us time to respond.

Some Negatives

There is still a problem with tritiated water and the breakdown to heavy water. Heavy water is not being broken down to normal water. Heavy water stops mitoses and therefore means humans and animals alike will have survival problems as this gets into the drinking water supply over a long time period.

Nuclear power is a stop-gap while looking for cleaner ways to make electricity.

Ideas for Computing Technology

Computing could be simplified to use extremely low power, much like e-paper devices and monochrome solutions, as colour is a nicety that we made for our pleasure, not as a need. Maybe a tricolour e-paper on a small micro-powered system with very basic functions with the most minimal power consumption to maintain photos and training materials. But why not dithered monochrome for common functions. Maybe we should look to the needs, not the wants.

There may be a need to reduce data on the systems where such data is not really needed. As such would reduce power consumption and the physical resources to maintain it. I have looked at the outlay of my own systems and at present it is minimal.

The difference between old and new technology is we can provide what we had back then with less power.

Manufacturing

There is a huge overhead of electricity in manufacturing. This is a difficult thing to overcome as there is much need for a number of products. I.e. Food production. But with a smaller population, there is less volume required.

Does fashion drive wants or needs? “Keeping up with the Joneses.”

Art and its Importance

Art and culture are important as they can inspire and create ideas. But not all ideas aspire to needs.

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Dangers of Tritiated Water Dumped in the Sea

Executive Summary

Tritiated water being dumped into the sea could cause a decline in mitosis and therefore affect reproduction in mammals both in the sea and mammals eating from the sea. There could also be effects similar to the bends with the production of 3He due to beta decay of the tritium. Tritium builds up in the body in the same fashion as lead however, tritium only stays around for up to 12.5 years. After this, it will change to deuterium and 3He. The body will start to excrete the deuterium which should still be bonded to oxygen forming heavy water. The deuterium (hydrogen-2 or 2H) does not decay as it is a stable isotope. Therefore all pure water (H2O) that is tritiated by nuclear power plants will become a form of heavy or semi-heavy water over time and the continued cycle eventually will convert all water to D2O and because of that, all mammals including humans will become extinct.

In More Detail

Tritiated water (T2O aka super-heavy water)[5] is being dumped or planned to be dumped into the sea by Japan[8]. They eat raw fish from the sea.[9] Note that it is tritiated water from the nuclear power plants so not pure tritium water, which is a good thing. Large quantities of tritiated may cause problems in high quantity as it is radioactive, although it has low levels of beta radiation which in itself is not as dangerous as ionising radiation, the decay process causes it to break down into other substances. There is approximately a 12-year half-life. One of the elements that form from the beta decay of tritium is helium-3 (a gas)[3][1] the other is deuterium aka hydrogen-2 (also a gas)[2]. In theory, the hydrogen would keep its bond with oxygen in T2O leaving deuterium water (D2O) aka heavy water[4]. But, the helium-3 (3He) is a noble gas, and therefore inert, which means that the gas is left roaming free. So if you eat foods from the sea or get tritiated water into your body the result may cause gas bubbles to form. It would probably be similar to the bends that divers can get when gas bubbles foam after rapid decompression. Tritiated water does occur naturally and the body can handle small doses but not complete body water replacement[7]. If levels become too highly concentrated then the body cannot remove the gasses from the blood, brain and organs.

Humans should not consume heavy water (D2O) as the D2O can stop cells from replicating in the body by disrupting the process of mitosis[6]. Tritiated water is more dangerous because, unlike D2O, T2O is harder to excrete from the body and can stay around for some years[7]. T2O changes to D2O within or up to its 12.5 half-life period (depending on when the T2O formed) and leaves 3He around. From T2O being introduced into the human body, you will get D2O that can be replaced by normal friendly H2O but also the free-roaming He3 which the body can remove in small amounts. During that time there will be a reduction in cellular replication which will be worse depending on the leaves of T2O.

In short, no one wants super-heavy water or heavy water in our food or water supplies. Thanks.

Notes

There can be DTO and HTO as well. Either would form 3He but only half as much as T2O.

Neutron radiation from the sun penetrates the Earth’s atmosphere where some T2O and HTO can be formed.[10]

  • Protium (1H) – stable – the friendly one everyone likes to have two of these bonded with oxygen that forms H2O
  • Deuterium (2H) – stable – not very nice because the strong bond with oxygen hurts mammals [6]
  • Tritium (3H) – unstable – beta decay – produces 2H and 3He, I don’t like you.

References

[1, EPA Fact About Tritium, https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0609/ML060960589.pdf]
[2, Deuterium, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterium, accessed 19th Jun 2021]
[3, Helium-3, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3, accessed 19th Jun 2021]
[4, Heavy Water, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_water, accessed 19th Jun 2021]
[5, Super-Heavy Water, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritiated_water, accessed 19th Jun 2021]
[6, Can you drink heavy water?, https://www.thoughtco.com/can-you-drink-heavy-water-607731, accessed 19th Jun 2021]
[7, TRITIUM from Nuclear Power Plants: Its Biological Hazards, https://www.nirs.org/radiation/tritium/, accessed 19th Jun 2021]
[8, Fukushima: Japan approves releasing wastewater into ocean, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56728068, accessed 19th Jun 2021]
[9, Sashimi, https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2044.html, accessed 19th Jun 2021]
[10, https://www.irsn.fr/EN/Research/publications-documentation/radionuclides-sheets/environment/Pages/Tritium-environment.aspx, accessed 19th Jun 2021]

Errata

19th Jun 2021, 20:14 – Added comment in summary about H2O becoming D2O over time. Changed He3 to 3He. Correction to the summary about the H2O to D2O.

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Dangers of Radioactive Tritium Water

Tritium water is being dumped or planning to be dumped into the sea. This may cause problems in high quantity as it is radioactive and although it is low levels the substance breakdown into different chemicals. There is approximately a 12-year half-life. One of the chemicals is helium (a gas).[EPA Fact About Tritium, https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0609/ML060960589.pdf] So if you eat foods from the sea or get tritium water into your body the result may cause gas bubbles to form. It would probably be similar to the bends that divers can get with gas bubbles foam after rapid decompression. Tritium water does occur naturally and the body can handle small doses but not complete body water replacement. If levels become too highly concentrated then the body cannot remove the gasses from the blood, brain and organs.

Please see more detail on my full page about the tritiated water issue.

https://www.dragon-net.co.uk/dangers-of-tritiated-water-dumped-in-the-sea/