"You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn)
11/01/2013 at 13:34 • Filed to: PIPEDREAMS, VAPORWARE, NUCLEAR CARS
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"You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn)
11/01/2013 at 13:34 • Filed to: PIPEDREAMS, VAPORWARE, NUCLEAR CARS | 0
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Remember the pipe dreams of alternative powered cars from back in the 50's and 60's? How we were all going to be driving turbine or nuclear powered cars? They're at it again, now claiming to be developing a
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
that will be good for 100 years worth of power on 8 grams of fuel. I'm going to file this one right next to "everyone will drive a flying car by 1980". At least the article comes with a fancy concept rendering.
There are now over one billion cars traveling roads around the world directly and indirectly costing trillions of dollars in material resources, time and noxious emissions. Imagine all these cars running cleanly for 100 years on just 8 grams of fuel each.
Laser Power Systems (LPS) from Connecticut, USA, is developing a new method of automotive propulsion with one of the most dense materials known in nature: thorium. Because thorium is so dense it has the potential to produce tremendous amounts of heat. The company has been experimenting with small bits of thorium, creating a laser that heats water, produces steam and powers a mini turbine.
As much as I'd like to believe we will soon be driving cars that are powered by thorium fueled laser beams I have to admit that I am quite skeptical. Though I do hope they manage to come up with an economically feasible power unit. Unfortunately the website of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the company working on the power plant doesn't inspire confidence. The opening line in their homepage lends itself to visions of Nigerian princes willing to give you $50,000 in exchange for helping them get their $20 million out of the country.
Imagine a NEW power generation systems with UNLIMITED POWER that is emissions free, and totally green. System sizes from 5 Kw to Megawatts that are cheap to build, safe to operate and can be used to power homes, business, transportation, cars, trucks, ships, military equipment, even planes and spacecraft. Thorium is the best alternative to oil, gas, coal and conventional Nuclear power plants and is the replacement technology internal combustion engines. The amount of free energy contained in thorium fuel is 20 million times the amount of free energy contained in a similar mass of chemical fuel such as coal, making thorium an ideal source of energy. (NEW and UNLIMITED POWER are their emphasis, not mine, YCTAFBYCTHM.)
While thorium is a promising energy source from what I've read, opening by claiming you are working on a power source with UNLIMITED POWER pretty much shoots any credibility you may actually have. The fact that the power unit is claimed to have a weight of 500 pounds and be similar in size to existing IC engines is promising. The fact that I've taken a look through their website and didn't see a picture of one suggests that it is actually vaporware.
davedave1111
> You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
11/01/2013 at 13:42 |
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Just another perpetual-motion scammer. The only snake-oil term he didn't throw in is LENR.
GhostZ
> You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
11/01/2013 at 13:57 |
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Simplify, then add beer
> You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
11/01/2013 at 17:44 |
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If you can generate that much power from such a small source, you're not going to put it in a car.
You're going to power a goddam city with it.
First sign of a snake oil salesmen. If its that good, why only pitch to consumers?