Russell McMahon wrote:
> Regardless of whether the case is true r not for "conventional" energy
> sources, nuclear fusion utterly romps home, IF you can do it and IF
> you can fuel it. Lunar Helium (deposited from the sun via the solar
> wind), while still not proven, would be a sustainable source of 'fuel'
> (at least for the next billion years or two).

We have plenty of fusion "fuel" right here on earth.  A surprisingly large
fraction (about 1/4500) of hydrogen atoms in naturally occurring surface
water is actually deuterium (an extra neutron).  This is the substance that
nuclear fusion reactor research is aiming to use.  A lot of oomph gets
released from making one helium from two deuteriums.  Refining water to
extract deuterium is not that difficult as such things go (a lot easier than
separating U235 from U238).  The Germans refined barrels of heavy water
during WWII.  In any case, the energy required to extract deuterium from
water is a small fraction of that released by turning the deuterium into
helium.


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