Frickin' Thorium Lasers To Power Cars 'For Ever'
Forget the sharks, we want lasers in our cars says US entrepreneur
'Cadillac' World Thorium Fuel concept
Being the sorts of duffers who would have done combined science as a GCSE had the option been available back in the day, we have absolutely no idea if this is remotely plausible. But the story does give us the opportunity to run a picture of Dr Evil on the PH homepage, which is itself an opportunity not to be missed.
Anyways... according to an article on txchnologist.com, Charles Stevens' firm Laser Power Systems has been working with thorium because it is only mildly radioactive, and the material is as abundant as lead.
Some more concepty/thorium stuff...
The website also reckons the idea has energised the small but active thorium community which holds that it is the answer to our clean energy needs because it could, effectively, power a car forever. The new technology "would be totally emissions-free," Stevens says, "with no need for recharging."
A power generator of the type described making the equivalent of 335hp would weigh around 225kgs and be small enough to fit under the hood of a car, we're told. Using just 8 grams of thorium the unit could power a car for 300,000 miles of 'normal' driving.
Which all sounds like a great cue for an 'oil company conspiracy' story. It has also (it must be said...) provided quite a good opportunity for txchnologist.com's own readers to put the boot in via their comment threads
Not Charles Stevens
"yeah mate its the distributor...we'll whip it out and have the car back to you Thursday..>"
Proceed to home page"
te.I like the Thorium bit though..
If the lasers powering the car, whats powering the laser? Either way where can i buy the MaxFelaser they're using? At 90% efficient (most are around 20%) and tuneable between 0.1 and 100um (Uv through to radio waves) that sound like an awesomely useful laser.... however maybe not
. That said he built the first one in 1985 so what do i know? (i wasn't long out of nappies back then)Criticality relates to the number of neutrons being produced in fission reactions that then go on to cause more fission reactions. If a reactor is 'critical' each fission reaction produces another one and the power level is constant. Supercritical each fission reaction produces more than one follow on fission reaction, power is going up. Sub critical, less than one, power is going down. A sub critical Thorium reactor uses some external source of neutrons, like a particle accelerator, to generate 'extra' fission reactions so the power level can be increased even though it's not generating enough neutrons itself to sustain the reaction rate.
As you say, their laser doesn't sound like it's a laser at all. Unless it's emitting coherent light it isn't a laser, by definition. I suppose it could be an IR laser, badly translated for the press, but I doubt it. Free electron lasers do exist and you can do some cool stuff with them but I somehow doubt these clowns have anything beyond a crappy website and some press releases.
It's possible right now to power a car by a nuclear fission, or even fusion source, or by hydrogen, a fuel cell, compressed gas, falling water, small mexican jumping beetles, coal, solar radiation, wind power, camels, steam, unemployed people, and perhaps even hot air (PH should get something together..... ;-) but none of those are currently as practical as using dead dinosaurs in liquid form with a reciprocating internal combustion engine and mechanical transmisson
"yeah mate its the distributor...we'll whip it out and have the car back to you Thursday..>"
" I mate we had a few issues with your car"
"I'm sure you only had 2 arms when i dropped the car off"
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