Pacificorp is building a 345KV, double circuit power line, that runs by my house, to transmit electrical power from their Populus substation north of Malad, Idaho to their Ben Lomond substation near Ogden, Utah. I took a hike with my son yesterday, since I wanted to see the power poles up close and because it was a good excuse to get out of the house and see a little blue sky and sun, even if it was still below freezing.
The transmission towers are a marvel of engineering. The highest tower near my house stands 155 feet above the ground and weighs 47,556 pounds. Here is the actual placard that is on the pole:
The line covers 135 miles, so that means there are hundreds of poles. This is obviously a very expensive project, whose merits I am not questioning. I would just like to point out that it would be neat to see a disruptive technology that would obviate the need for these large, interstate transmission lines.
Imagine small liquid fluoride thorium reactors (LFTR), so economic that every city of 20,000 or more could have one of their own for all their electric needs with enough waste heat left over for district heating of the entire town with heated streets for snow removal. I know, I know, I’m day dreaming again.
A step beyond that would be zero point energy (ZPE) devices compact enough to fit in a car and provide 50 KW. I know that ZPE is all very speculative, but how long did it take humanity to invent suitcases with retractable handles and rollers?
Since molten salt reactors have already been built and operated for periods of years, LFTRs are in no way speculative. This is technology that we could have today. And I believe that LFTRs would be very disruptive for the current players and a godsend for the rest of us. So, lets disrupt!!! Every garage inventor, every Tesla, every Newton, every Galileo, every Scaliger, every Rutan, every Paul Allen – come on, we need you to disrupt! We especially need disruption of the sclerotic bureaucracies and fear mongering pressure groups that have thwarted peaceful nuclear power since the beginning!
(As an aside, I scaled a photo of the 155 foot tower to measure the distance to the next pole and calculated 886 feet. Assuming the same spacing between the rest of the poles, 135 miles times 5,280 divided by 886 feet equals 804 towers. That’s a lot! This transmission line project is one of nine Pacificorp projects totaling $6 billion. Couldn’t a utility easily develop a LFTR for a cool billion dollars?)
The transmission towers are a marvel of engineering. The highest tower near my house stands 155 feet above the ground and weighs 47,556 pounds. Here is the actual placard that is on the pole:
The line covers 135 miles, so that means there are hundreds of poles. This is obviously a very expensive project, whose merits I am not questioning. I would just like to point out that it would be neat to see a disruptive technology that would obviate the need for these large, interstate transmission lines.
Imagine small liquid fluoride thorium reactors (LFTR), so economic that every city of 20,000 or more could have one of their own for all their electric needs with enough waste heat left over for district heating of the entire town with heated streets for snow removal. I know, I know, I’m day dreaming again.
A step beyond that would be zero point energy (ZPE) devices compact enough to fit in a car and provide 50 KW. I know that ZPE is all very speculative, but how long did it take humanity to invent suitcases with retractable handles and rollers?
Since molten salt reactors have already been built and operated for periods of years, LFTRs are in no way speculative. This is technology that we could have today. And I believe that LFTRs would be very disruptive for the current players and a godsend for the rest of us. So, lets disrupt!!! Every garage inventor, every Tesla, every Newton, every Galileo, every Scaliger, every Rutan, every Paul Allen – come on, we need you to disrupt! We especially need disruption of the sclerotic bureaucracies and fear mongering pressure groups that have thwarted peaceful nuclear power since the beginning!
(As an aside, I scaled a photo of the 155 foot tower to measure the distance to the next pole and calculated 886 feet. Assuming the same spacing between the rest of the poles, 135 miles times 5,280 divided by 886 feet equals 804 towers. That’s a lot! This transmission line project is one of nine Pacificorp projects totaling $6 billion. Couldn’t a utility easily develop a LFTR for a cool billion dollars?)
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