X-Message-Number: 21965
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 08:44:13 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #21955 - #21962

Hi everyone!

What is all this nonsense about a lack of energy? Nowhere do I 
see mentioned nuclear power at all. It's not that I am against
solar power so much as that nuclear power seems to be totally
forgotten. After that comes thermonuclear power, for which in
space it would be easy to generate (use fusion bombs to heat
up areas on the moon or whole asteroids. Then generate power
from this heat). Not only that, but if we get only a little
bit further from the Sun, solar power becomes quite impractical.
We'll not be able to explore Uranus or Neptune or their moons
without some kind of nuclear power.

And what about gas to run our cars, and so on? Right now there
is a company which uses a boron-hydrogen compound to cheaply
store lots of hydrogen in liquid form. (After using the hydrogen
the compound can be regenerated). You use this compound in a
FUEL CELL, not in an ordinary engine, and get nice efficient
cars. One company, Ballard Power Systems, is already using 
fuel cells to power buses and other larger vehicles.

If no other power source were available, people would turn to
solar power almost by definition. Sure, its price would be
higher and our living standards would go down, but with work
they'd go up again. But then whoever said that no other power
source will be available?

I thought when I logged onto Cryonet I would find people who
were genuinely interested in SOLVING problems rather than
moaning about how hard they'll be to solve. And I mean not just
the problem of death but also all the other ones we can foresee.
(Not that we won't find other problems once we've solved 
those we see!). Instead I find what looks like a funeral party,
mourning the death of the modern world.

             Best wishes, and long long life to all (even still),

                 Thomas Donaldson

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