Star Trek: Fission

Star Trek: Fission - The Star Trek future depicted from the 1966 television series though to today's motion pictures, is one of energy abundance.

Conceived by Gene Roddenberry during the "Atoms for Peace" era, and the harnessing of nuclear fission with what would later become known as "1st Generation" nuclear reactors, it looked like humanity's future would be one of unconstrained access to energy.

Lessons we've learned since the creation of Star Trek include the following:

- Energy Storage is expensive.
- Nuclear Fusion is hard.
- Fossil fuels are extremely plentiful.
- Nuclear FISSION is easy... it can even happened in nature.

FISSION, the splitting of atoms to release enormous amounts of energy, deserves a second look.

The energy density of Uranium and Thorium, and the abundance of those materials, mean the societal though-experiment pursued in Star Trek... the society of abundance... the preservation of Earth's wild spaces... the lack of pollution... from an energy perspective those "Star Trek" goals can be achieved WITHOUT FUSION.

Uranium is more abundant than previously thought, it can even be harvested from seawater. Thorium is even more abundant, and can be fully fissioned into energy using slowed-down neutrons and molten salt chemistry.

Aside from the fantasy of warp-drive and teleportation, FISSION is the key to unlocking space exploration throughout our solar system.

FUSION should still be pursued. It might become a practical source of energy, it might not. We will never know without continuing to try.

But FISSION is here today. It was here on Earth billions of years ago. And there are no significant challenges keeping us from providing abundant energy to power human civilization, whether here on Earth, on the Moon or even on Mars.

[GreezyWorks]

Caldicott: "You're allowed to use paper to wipe your bottoms, that's all!"

Door goes whoosh. "Power the place with windmills."

Priceless edit.

[levmatta]

I watched all your videos. This one is the best, you start telling a compelling story using a familiar reference. That TED talk is excellent also. Thanks !!

[azafreak]

Erg, Caldecott.
Struggling to watch this because of her.

[powerofanime]

The following conversation never occurred, but I sure played with the idea:

Caldicott: "E=MC2, do you know what that stands for?"
Me: "Energy."
Caldicott: "No! Ejaculate!"
Me: "Ejaculate."
Caldicott: "Yes!"
Me: "Ejaculate?"
Caldicott: "That's right."
Me: "So Ejaculate equals Mass times the Speed of Light squared? There's a top speed of the universe at which point, if any item reaches it, whether or not it is nuclear fuel, a baseball bat or the Mona Lisa, at that speed everything becomes semen? Is that what you're saying?"
Caldicott: "..."
Me: "Neat trick!"

[mkennedy]

If it was up to that lady we would never reach the next level of humanity.

[kokofan]

This got me thinking about arcologies, self sustaining cities (often in one giant building) and planet covered covered in them making ecumenopolis.

[NukeMarine]

Video ends on a cliffhanger. What the hell!

[koneye]

Too much runtime is spent on the crazy lady. It started to look like a hit piece at one point. More information and data would have been prefable.

Good work none the less

[powerofanime]

I really need to know which movie that was.

[leerman]

I completely changed my outlook on nuclear. I used to be firmly against, then in high school became neutral, then after that I became pro-nuclear.

[allensimpsonmusic]

Oh my lord, Caldecott is the most painful...

[catalindochitoiu]

My video froze 2 minutes before end and no amount of backup, reload, restart could get it past that point. So I missed the punchline .. But I was reminded of an older question : how would a molten salt reactor work in zero gravity, or even in variable gravity, like on a plane? It was initially meant to power a plane (he he).

[TeePole]

I’ve seen Michael Moore in shorts and now welcome a worldwide nuclear holocaust...

Hey Michael! Two words: “Armpit Pizza.”

[jimbalio]

39:30 YEAH RIGHT !!! Next time you are fully carbo-loaded, sit yourself down and pedal til you want to puke, to get a 100W light bulb to stay lit. You won't feel like sustaining it for very long. Top flight athletes can sustain output of around 400 Watts for perhaps a couple of hours. A "fit" human can - maybe - sustain about 100Watts of output for 8 hours. After that we all need to take a big rest, replenish and recharge. Yippee skipee 800 Watthours generated for a full day's work. Gee, no thanks, I think I'm going to devote my energy (literally) to becoming educated and in gaining the technical and engineering expertise needed to make the world a better place. "Free Energy" stationary bicycles are a fools errand, and there is nothing "free" about them.

[faragar]

Is anyone currently developing a MSR reactor to run on thorium?

[ASNSZero]

Hehe... I love messing with dumb people by saying "Dihydrogen Monoxide".

[speedraser]

It only took 12 amps to get back from the moon.

[philimac]

Wow! How do you get away with the derision at that level?
Gwyneth Paltrow spewed the same about toilet paper. Hmm where did she get her talking points?
HC is a 60's radical man hating Battle Ax & card carrying member of Haters INC. Tks G

[allensimpsonmusic]

I'm wary of suggesting dropping the population below the replacement rate as being "good"...

[DelacroixBoy]

What's the best way to start investing in Thorium? I don't have a ton of money but I want this tech to exist everywhere now. Unfortunately, I'm not a billionaire. If I was I'd build my own reactor. Everyone I tell about this thinks I'm insane for caring about this. It's really depressing. I don't think most people really care about where their energy comes from.