Helium 3 Options

[impala454]

I was watching some stuff on discovery last night about us going back to the moon, and they mentioned it looks like the moon would be a vast source of helium 3 (according to them, pretty much the most valuable material known to man at the moment). Basically they said sustained fusion reactors could be possible using helium 3 instead of hydrogen (because they shoot off way less damaging neutrons which destroy the reactor walls in hydrogen reactors). They mentioned that (in theory) 1 metric ton of helium 3 would be enough to power a city of 10 million for a year (100% clean energy, treehuggers). They also mentioned that it's estimated the moon has over 100 million tons of the stuff. So if we could come up with a cost effective way to mine the moon for this material we could have a great energy solution for a long time. The current cash value of the stuff as said in the program is $1 billion/ton, so I could see these missions paying for themselves at some point.

what do yall think? did anyone else see that show?

[impala454]

yeah I believe so, that was how they explained it, that the hydrogen fusion reaction gave off way too many neutrons (something like 80% of the energy of the reaction), which damaged the reactor walls enough that they'd have to be replaced every few years. they said w/this helium 3 there's way more useable energy output and less maintinence.

[chook]

yeah I believe so, that was how they explained it, that the hydrogen fusion reaction gave off way too many neutrons (something like 80% of the energy of the reaction), which damaged the reactor walls enough that they'd have to be replaced every few years. they said w/this helium 3 there's way more useable energy output and less maintinence.

I guess it was harder to break the strong force with more protons there? Sounds cool and wish i had more time to look into it.