U233 is simply the best atomic explosive isotope to be had.”

The Wikipedia article on U233 indicates this is not a “real” problem and that actual bombs built using U-233 have not produced even the predicted yield.

Cadmium (from Cades; Devil of Zinc)

Touched on just a bit: VIBRATION is a battery killer.

About a century ago some attempt was made to take steam turbine technology from ships and power stations to the railroads.

It was discovered — only during real world testing — that the roughness of the national track system was too much for steam turbines — any steam turbines.

They kept being destroyed in the bearings, seals and gears. None of those issues stopped steam turbines from being the low cost, high performance leader at sea — or when stationary.

Likewise auto batteries. They need to be babied. A century ago that meant that electric cars stayed on the nice paved streets in the nicer neighborhoods.

Such conditions still prevail for current enthusiasts.

Any attempt to take EVs seriously on the road will have them breaking down that moment.

Some flavor of this was written into the script of

“The Great Race” (1965)

wherein Maggie Dubois (Natalie Wood) has to abandon her Stanley Steamer early in the race — whence to join the Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) for the rest of the plot.

At that time, everyone knew that it was leaving town that really exposed the weakness of the steamers: they’re water and fuel pigs.

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A technical tip: Thorium can’t release energy. It’s only fertile. It becomes U233 — an extremely dangerous isotope of Uranium — which does all of the work.

It’s dangerous because it can be separated from the Thorium — chemically — and converted into even better atomic bombs than the regular ones that we all know and fear.

Terrific.

U233 is simply the best atomic explosive isotope to be had.

We better hope that nuclear fusion never succeeds. If it does, we’ll be swamped with cheap neutrons. The only economic reason atomic bombs are expensive is because neutrons are brutally expensive. EVERY atomic program is bedeviled by the need to squeeze out the most performance from every neutron.

In sum: practical fusion will open Pandora’s box — for all time.

Every high school student will be able to craft Heath Kit atomics.

(BTW, one high school nerd did, in fact, get atomic reactions to proceed — in his backyard. He thought that transmuting elements would be just so cool. His results were such that a haz-mat team had to swarm his parent’s property. Cute.)

Once you add a buttload of batteries to that mix, the first and last numbers go up in a way that utterly SWAMPS the meager numbers of OPERATING the car, which is what most people Just Don’t Get.”

A very concise explanation of why EVs are not ready for prime time. The hybrids stack up a little better but they still have the issues of battery costs over the life of the car and battery disposal costs.

It costs $60,000 to $75,000 to build a Volt, including development, manufacturing and raw materials — (snip) — With a sticker price of $40,000, minus the $10,000 the company pays in incentives, GM gets roughly $30,000 for every Volt. So it could be losing at least $30,000 per car.

Read the whole thing:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/23/chevrolets-volt-selling-but-not-at-sticker-price/?page=all

Yeah, *wonderful* for the environment!!

Both have been several decades away for several decades now.

When you hear of some agency breaking the Lawson Criterion that will be a big deal… and it’s not happened in more than 60 years of Fusion research, now.

Simplistically put, the Lawson Criterion is the point at which the energy you put INTO the system is equal to or less than the energy you get OUT of the system.