My knowledge of that comes from Jasper Fforde
where they manage to get a cold fusion machine out of a radioactive cucumber.
That's where i learnt about entropy too.
It's all bullshit, but it's brilliantly written bullshit.

I know very little about science. But fusion is what goes on in the sun, so having fusion on a small scale is having a mini-sun? Won't that be horrifically dangerous?

I'm so getting kicked out of Utopia. I'd jsut be bitching about how it doesn't make etymological sense.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 22 Jun 2009, 11:05, 3 replies, latest was 17 years ago)

It's being done quite frequently already
It's just that, as K2 said, we need more energy to maintain it than we get from the reaction.

:edit: Horrifically dangerous would be three drunk manic depressives and an axe in the same building...
( Captain V, Mon 22 Jun 2009, 11:09, Reply)

Yes,
There should be checks in place to stop that happening.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 22 Jun 2009, 11:45, Reply)

Fusion
The resulting radiation is a fraction of what you get from existing nuclear plants, all you need is the technology to contain the reaction and a supply of deuterium. As it happens, there is a lot of it on the moon, which is why Russia, India, the US, Japan and the EU are working towards a permanent manned presence there within the next thirty years or so.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Mon 22 Jun 2009, 11:13, Reply)

Dangerous?
Nope - fusion (in a tokamak) is totally self-regulating and the reaction will stop naturally if there's a leak.
(Shippy likes linebreaks and doesn't care what you think, Mon 22 Jun 2009, 11:24, Reply)

Oh, that's good.
So fission is more dangerous, because any leak basically pwns the world?

I'm aware of how stupid I'm sounding. Sorry.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 22 Jun 2009, 11:26, Reply)

not sounding stupid at all
it's more than acceptable to not know about something, and at least you are asking sensible questions
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 22 Jun 2009, 11:30, Reply)

Ha, it's more like all I'm doing in this thread is asking things.
It's like, GTFO and come back when you can actually contribute something!

Ah well. There do seem to be a lot of sciencey bods here. I feel so intimidated!
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 22 Jun 2009, 11:34, Reply)