A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its solar power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to explain how a spacefaring civilization would meet its energy requirements once those requirements exceed what can be generated from the home planet’s resources alone. Because only a tiny fraction of a star’s energy emissions reaches the surface of any orbiting planet, building structures encircling a star would enable a civilization to harvest far more energy.
Regarding the question on that stupid limited-time thread regarding disposal of used nuclear fuel, the only answer we have is to bury it.
However, before that is done it is enclosed in glass and (I believe) stainless steel casing in order to prevent any ingress of water (which could carry away some plutonium) and also physical damage by movement of the surrounding earth.
Having done that, the waste is buried deeply and its location recorded to prevent any unwitting interference and even approach by others. It is designed that it can remain there for thousands of years if necessary due to its half-life.
We, incidentally, are lucky to have disused mine shafts a-plenty which could be used for this purpose.
Cool video! What’s the current state of this technology? This video is from 2017. Looking up KPS energy brings up a lot of hits. Are they still around?
I could not have an EV even if I wanted to buy one. My incoming electric supply will not support a rapid charging point, so I would have to fund a completely new supply cable right in from the other side of my avenue. If all the neighbours wanted one too, then completely new uprated mains cables would be needed all the way from the substation transformer about 3/4 mile away AND a larger feeder transformer. None of that will happen, so no EV for me or my neighbours.
As each day passes the bright idea politicians simply bury their collective heads in the sand and blame someone else for the slow take up rate.
Poor you, we’re “lucky” enough to have one no more than 10 yards from our front door. It’s built on land that was originally demised to our property before the lecky people took it over.
After I watched the 2017 video, there was another video on a documentary about kite technology. It was dated Sept. 2020. It was called the Makani project. The comments say that the Makani project folded last year.
That looks a very interesting proposition, LD. So much so I’ve dug a bit deeper and come up with another article about a similar solar plant in Spain. However, it seems to me that to have something similar in the UK would be “barking up the wrong tree” so to speak because we have nothing like the amount of daily sunlight that these existing installations receive.
Yes that would not be a sensible proposition. However, once superconductors have been perfected at a reasonable cost, there would be no limits as to how long transmission lines could be.
Each day that passes, something new is developed and not too far in the future (think generations) there will be a viable solution for every problem. What pisses me off is that I wont be around to witness interstellar travel🤬
The problem is disposing of the medium and high level wastes.
It is simply a matter of Science versus Politics.
JBR is spot on about vitrification, the stainless encapsulation is still the subject of debate, do you encase each vitrified block, or the tunnel or both?
These are however technical matters.
The Politics are the important thing.
We do not have mines in the right place to store the high level waste, loads we can bury the low level in and a few where we can bury the medium level.
The high level needs to be buried in clay, which means SE England, a political nightmare for the Tories.
Shoving it in granite in the NW of England is very politically attractive, low property values, etc etc.
When reliable large payload space transport has been perfected, all of the radioactive waste can be propelled into our star, the sun. It will be consumed there by the constant chain reaction of hydrogen/helium cycle.
Magma power
What about magma power? The centre of our Earth is very hot, so why not try and get closer to it to tap into some geothermal heat? Look at the power of an erupting volcano. People in Iceland are already doing this with red-hot magma after accidentally (ooops) striking a pocket of it during a drilling project back in 2008. World’s First Magma-enhanced Geothermal System Created in Iceland (inhabitat.com)
Yes, absolutely. However, when we expand our nuclear power supply systems the people of SE England will have no choice in the matter. If they want a continuation of electrical power, they’ll have to put up with some mines, though not necessarily many.
We can dig deep mines there just as we have done in coal-bearing areas of the country. It didn’t take long to dig the shafts in the early 1900s and would probably take place even more quickly today. A single shaft with some radiating tunnels when a suitable depth has been reached would provide ample space for our used fuel.
How strange to see steel headgears popping up in the South-East, but how very useful for us as a nation.
On a related topic, where do you think we can actually reduce the usage of energy? Also, it seems pretty self evident that battery operated cars aren’t likely to be a viable option for a wide range of reasons. Apart from hydrogen cars, have any of you heard of any other ideas in the pipeline?
A great deal of energy can be saved during the night by converting each and every street light to LEDs. Worcester, from where we moved, had an active programme of changing all the street lights over from high pressure sodium and mercury lamps to LEDs. Paid for themselves in no time I believe.
There are a great many out-of-town stores and shopping malls that could have solar arrays installed on their roofs (if they haven’t already) and, indeed, many large buildings all over the country.
Anaerobic digesters were shown on last Sunday’s Country File programme. These ferment cow poo producing methane and fertiliser. The methane is burnt to heat water to produce electricity. The installation shown in the item cost £5m (but treated as a 20yr investment = £250k/yr depreciation), had been in use for 10yrs and had already paid for itself because of the rising cost of electricity and the sales value of the fertiliser. These digesters are not new technology at all, they’re just very expensive up-front and, as a dairy farmer, you would need quite a large herd. This isn’t the one on Sunday’s Country File but it’s the same sort of thing.
