Nuclear Fusion! With a Roadmap

8/3/2019 Nuclear Fusion! With a Roadmap

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Food, Energy, Transportation, Urban Design, Climate for an Eternity without Oil!

Harnessing Nuclear Fusion!With a Roadmap to the Infinite, Eternal Future

The signs of an impending energy catastrophe are all around us, just waitingfor an unfortunate combination of circumstances to create misery for untold millionsof our global co-citizens! It takes energy to produce the food that our

unprecedented global populations require to survive on a day-to-day basis. Wherewill that energy come from as our remaining petroleum reserves are exhausted?

What kind of roadmap can we use, and what can we do now within theconfines of the sustainable and renewable resources that will always be available?


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We know very clearly what those will be, and we know very clearly what willsoon be unavailable, which happen to be the same resources that are also seriouslydamaging the futures ofour childrens families; how can they ever live as well aswe have! We are selling future generations down the river, past Cancer Alley onthe Mississippi and into a future without the easy and cheap energy of today, forthe sake of a few carnal pleasures, snowmobiles, junk food, and overly largevehicles, homes and buildings in the few short years of our lives. What will theywake up to?

And yet, we have a ready source of more than abundant power derived fromnuclear fusion, our sun, that lends itself to distributed power generation. And, oncewe have devoted as much creativity to harnessing it as we have to the veryexhaustible resource that is petroleum, we will wonder why it took so long toembrace it and make it an integral part of all our lives!

It can be argued that we are all the genetic reincarnations of our parents,that the last 2,000 years are only 100 generations away, or only 20 times the 5

generations, grandparents to grandchildren, that we have met in our own families.If we also imagine that the components of our genes, those that combine andrecombine with each new generation, are indeed eternal, having existed ever sincelife first began on this planet, then we ought very rapidly to design a world that willstill be nurturing them in 2,000, 400,000 and a million years from now!

That is becoming an ever greater challenge as the years pass havingquadrupled global populations in the last century, due to our use of petroleum andthe availability of food that it provided, while reaching the end of that petroleumsupply, how far off the edge of a steep, sharp cliff are we currently hanging?

If we are to keep progressing, we must find ways to sustain all of us at orabove the levels that we have become accustomed to! How can we do that?


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1. The specific challenges that we must all address are A) the production of foodwithout petroleum there were approximately 100 million Americans in 1915 and

21.5 million horses (5:1) to help us to produce food. Now we are 304 millionAmericans with only 6.9 million horses (44:1), few of which have ever seen a plowlet alone pulled one! How will we produce food without their help, no petroleum andwhen much of the best farmland in the country has been paved over? B) Where dowe get energy from when more than 40% of our total energy demands and morethan 99% of the fuel we use in our cars, trucks and farm equipment that iscurrently provided by oil is gone? C) Can we do anything to slow down and reversethe global climate change that we have created, largely by burning fossilized carbonthat has been removed from the atmosphere for at least 61 million years?

Can we create the worlds first 100% sustainable infrastructure, knowing that

everything that we make, use and do within the next 60 years must be 100%sustainable, including stabilizing the worlds climates, if we want to maintain theworlds populations at their current levels?! My project is one of the first tocomprehensively address and design for all of these globally life threatening issuesusing currently available technologies!

2. Before the age of the automobile in 1900, 60.4% of the American populationwas classified as rural, and were reasonably able to walk into fields to cultivatetheir own food. Now, only 4% of rural residents make their living farming, the lasttime most Americans lived on farms was in 1880 and the last time the majoritylived in rural communities was in 1920. We will have an enormous challenge tofeed, clothe, employ and transport Americans when there is no more oil! We mustuse the most energy efficient transportation, trains, the only feasible long-termenergy sources, the renewables that run from the nuclear fusion in our sun, and theclose proximity of all residents of new buildings to food production areas, which isonly possible using linear-form cities!

We have long tried to generate power from nuclear fusion, almost by ignoringwhere it works so well close to us on Earth, in the sun! The containment of thenuclear plasma, so difficult here on Earth, is taken care of by the space thatseparates us all we have to do is to create the most efficient infrastructure forcapturing the energy, while also providing both food and transportation!

Solar technologies are advancing as we speak, live and sleep, and they alsooffer something that is predictable in the long-term very similar amounts of solarenergy fall on the earth every year! So, the disruptions that are often created in ourconventional energy supply, from conflicts to weather, need not affect thedistributed production of solar energy!

With such a predictable supply, we can both gear our use of energy to the

annual supply, and design technologies that take advantage of this uniformity!

o We will see the end of petroleum within 60 years, the most critical fact forthe lives of our grandchildren, which our media has avoided despite itsimportance! It may also be noted that Iraq is the country with the greatestremaining reserves of petroleum. Could our absolute dependence on oil fortransportation (99%) and food production explain why we are there, and whythe president did a U-turn to stay there once elected? We need to face the


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future squarely and design systems that require no oil, before we havenone at all!

o Global climates are very likely to seriously deteriorate, inundating coastlinesdue to rising sea levels and destroying life for more than 50 percent of theAmericans who currentlylive in 772 coastalcounties. By 2025, nearly 75percent of Americans are projected to be living near a coast, withpopulationdensity doubling in some areas such as Florida and California. Furthermore,globally about 60 million people live within 1 meter of mean sea level, anumber expected to grow to about 130 million by 2100! What will their lives,homes, and jobs look like then?

o With the end of petroleum, we are very likely to see the end of thecoordinated, efficient and compact food production systems that allowAmericans and global citizens to eat affordably today. In that vacuum, whatare the chances that law and social order can be maintained, especially if thepolice themselves are deprived of petroleum? Even now, the US DefenseDepartment is the worlds largest single consumer of oil!How can acountry that has only 2% of the worlds oil on its territory, but

consumes 20% of the worlds supply continue to live in peace withall other nations!

We must find and develop both a paradigm and an infrastructure for where wecan get plastics (a reduced number, all from plants), energy (all from renewablesexcept, for the time being, from nuclear), food (from 100% organic production) andtransportation (as outlined here and below)!

I. Land, Population, Transportation and Food without Petroleum:World and American populations are dispersed across the continents roughly asindicated in this satellite image of Earthlights at night, bearing in mind that we inthe USA consume about 5 times the energy/person of those in Europe and 22 timesthose in the rest of the world!

The low-lying areas along the East and West Coasts, and Mississippi River

Valley and Gulf Coast could all easily disappear under rising sea levels, to say

nothing of European, Asian and Indian populations in low-lying areas!


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This is a mathematics problem: how to supply over 4 times the worlds

people on land and energy supplies that are likely to dwindle even more than they

are now, and were in 1900!

There are ways to sail around this problem as sea levels rise, however, using

modern technologies to better harness the nuclear fusion of our sun, as follows:

Why live in a long ribbon, linear city when you can live in something asexciting as the Burj Kalifa, on the right above, for example? The answer comesdown to simple, 7th grade mathematics: lines have a far greater perimeter thancircles, which have the minimum that is mathematically possible.

Please compare the 2 figures below that have roughly the same area butvastly different perimeters - - - - - - :

These differences are compounded when you stack the circles on top of eachother to create the building on the right above, which is superb in the views and

sense of power that it creates, but poor when all its inhabitants must walk intofields to grow their own crops because there is no more petroleum to produce thefood and bring it to where people can eat it! Please consider too that all of ourcities are circular, not linear, forms that give few people access to fields to growcrops. Please see the image of Los Angeles on the right below!

Why should this make a difference? After all, technology has been directingus toward the heights for at least a century, the same century that has beencoincidentally driven largely by petroleum, and the mobility that it has given us.


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I therefore propose linear citieslike that on the right, where everyonecan walk from where they live intoopen fields, both to grow their ownfood, and to supply those who are stillstuck in existing cities, and towers likethose above!

The orange tunnel borderingthe fields contains high-speed rail,along with medium and low-speedlines, which are the only form oftransportation outside of bicycles,ships and electric cars that can bedriven by wind. Everyone lives withina 10 minute walk of their own field,chickens and fruit trees, and all canvery rapidly reach the existing cities

using the high-speed rail link, whichuses only 1/3 of the energy/passenger mile that cars & aircraft do.

The wind turbines (belowbetween nos. 2 and 3) along the edgeof the north to south linear citycapture the energy of the prevailingwesterly wind that has been accelerated as it passes over its 3 5 stories.

Expressways/railways can be used to deliver building materials to build linear citiesjust alongside, as below, and we can start by installing conventional wind turbines

first 1), followed by both high-speed rail and high temperature superconductinginduction tracks in the roadway to drive electric vehicles, giving them unlimitedrange 2), followed by the construction of the linear cities themselves 3).


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The sketches below show the same process, with the intermediate stage of elevatedplatforms a) for quick-change battery pit stops for autonomous electric vehicles. Allresidents are within walking and cycling distance of fields, as below:

The Linear Cities follow the expressways in the middle above, and go more directlybetween the existing cities on the right above. They run north to south, at rightangles to prevailing westerly winds as mentioned, except for B) below, and can bebuilt into hillsides, onto land that becomes flooded, and along watercourses as inthe aerial view on the left above.


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With the forthcoming certainty of the End of Oil, and a global food crisis

looming, there are more and more who advocate much greater reliance on organic

farming methods. Organic farming methods however are labor intensive, as

mandated by the low-petroleum era, and resolved by the much greater proximity to

the land that Linear Ecocities provide. This is one of the only ways to get the hands

into the fields, as 80% of us now live in cities, far from food production areas! As

Linear Ecocities run through cropland, all hands are either a 10-minute walk from

where they may work for the day, or a short or long train ride from the field and

seasonal crop that must be tended.

The infrastructure paradigm detailed above can move toward supplying all of

our food, energy and transportation needs, but cities do not yet span large bodies

of water, nor filter into the deep countryside. Therefore, we also need new 100%

sustainable technologies to accommodate these 2 situations, and many others,

once there is no more oil! Because of its imminent disappearance, we will be forced

to abandon its combustion and resultant global greenhouse effects, but we mustnot replace it with any other fossil fuels/coal!

100% Sustainable Sea & Land TransportationTherefore, please view below projects to create gas turbine/flywheel/battery

hybrid cars with 4-wheel drive and regenerative braking that will burn practically

any fuel and protect their occupants much better in

accidents, please see the variety of accident scenarios

below. In head-on collisions, the more rigid, pointed

central chassis is very unlikely to meet point topoint with the opposing car. The front bumpers

act as triggers to detach the front A-arm

on that side, and the front fenders are

also mounted to slide to the rear on the

appropriate side, thereby reducing the

deceleration felt by the occupants of

both cars.

Similarly, the rear and side

undersides are sloped so that the impacted

car is thrust upwards and its occupants pressed into their seats, with which theyalready have contact. This is both automatic and passive, does not depend upon

fallible technologies to work, and can cut the g-forces felt by all occupants, thereby

saving many lives!


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The front A pillars on either side of the windshield are greatly reinforced to

keep the roof from collapsing as the impacting car slides under the impacted car!

That still leaves the oceans as poorly crossable once there is no more

petroleum to fly aircraft or power ships. How can global passenger and cargo trips

continue without petroleum? That may be easier than we currently realize! All we

have to do is to build kite-sail hydrofoil hovercraft ships to rapidly cross the oceans

when we can no longer fly across them.

We mustdesign and build much more rapid sailing ships that get all or

most of their energy from renewable sources, and quickly eliminate the

highly polluting ships burning bunker crude of today that will not be able

to sail due to lack of fuel, in any case, soon.

With the imminent demise of our fossil-fueled economy, we must already develop a

100% sustainable transportation, energy and food producing infrastructure! Theland-based paradigms are discussed above, but we must also consider what to do

about transportation at sea, especially if we are unable to fly conventional aircraft

after the end of petroleum, and to transform what is the dirtiest form of

transportation in terms of high-nitrogen and high-sulfur fuel use, the dumping of

black, grey, and bilge water that can contain invasive species, into much

cleaner and attractive forms of transportation.

Currently, Seagoing vessels are responsible for an estimated 14% of emissions of

nitrogen from fossil fuels and 16% of the emissions of sulfur from petroleum uses

into the atmosphere. In Europe ships make up a large percentage of the sulfurintroduced to the air, as much sulfur as all the cars, trucks and factories in

Europe put together. By 2010, up to 40% of air pollution over land could come

from ships because the fuel used in oil tankers and container ships is high in sulfur

and cheaper to buy compared to the fuel used for domestic land use. A ship lets

out around 50 times more sulfur than a truck per metric tonne of cargo carried.6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_pollution#cite_note-Harrabin-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_pollution#cite_note-Harrabin-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_pollution#cite_note-Harrabin-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_pollution#cite_note-Harrabin-4


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1. The Hovercat uses an aluminum,or composite catamaran hull,

with hovercraft capability

between the hulls to lift them out

of the water so that the kites can

pull the ship forward fast

enough to enable the hydrofoils

to work. All the kite sails are

computer controlled and are

attached to domes that double

as elevated air intakes for the hovercraft.

The dark blue tinted glass bridge is movable from port to starboard to permit

more accurate maneuvering in close quarters and small ports. As cargo and

passenger vessels, they are roll on/roll off with fail-safe bow and stern closures,

light weight, high maneuverability and speed, and fun!

2. The Hexcat again uses the hovercraft and hydrofoil technologies, with a novelkitesail launching & deployment

arrangement that can put many

kites into the sky, both to

increase the traction of the

available wind, and to reach

winds that may be stronger, or in

a more favorable direction

further aloft. As with the

Hovercat above, the hydrofoils

are retractable so that both

ships can launch from and return

to beaches and concrete launching aprons. Both are envisaged for use as cargo

ships, passenger ships, or both at the same time.

3. Why not harness this technologyto make transoceanic journeys even

more efficient by linking many craft

together? Please see the illustration

below for a caterpillar configuration

that may just become the monarch

of the seas!

I don't think that the weight of the

sails/kites and rigs is an issue as kites

now have helium filled bladders in their

leading edges to get them out of the

water and into the air.


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This concept has 2 launching

masts in carbon fiber that pull the kites

out of a launching chute at the bow

(orange above, yellow below). The top

illustration shows an existing

hovercraft that is capable of carrying 3

Hummers and substantial containers

with equipment. As existing kite sails

are capable of pulling kite boarders

completely out of the water, see the

illustrations below, one of the

functions of the hydrofoils is to keep the craft in the water and not launched to

a height where the landing could be damaging!

I am sure that the day of the end of petroleum is coming soon and, even if it is

not soon, we need to keep the maximum amount of petroleum unburned bothto preserve the atmosphere and for use in the production of sails, plastics,

pharmaceuticals, fertilizer and pesticides, so that we can continue to eat!

Why not extend this concept to wind-

driven flight using recycled and lightened

aircraft fuselages, after there is no more fuel to

power them? This concept uses tethered wing

keels that also have wheels to roll directly onto

rails for continued trans-continental journeys

once the trans-oceanic part of global voyagesis finished eg. New York to Moscow non-stop!


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PS.The following is a comparison between the number of pagesreferenced by Google for the combination of Wall Street and food

production, and Wall Street and Oil Production, and the Dow Jones

Industrial Averages for the past decade. It seems that there is a reasonably

close correlation between all 4! Lets get some grad students onto this to see

whether we can make Wall Street more transparent, so that fewer people

lose their shirts there!


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What may be interesting in examining the above is that a high occurrence of

sites that mention Wall Street, and oil production and/or foodproduction in the same article came afterthe crash in 2002-03, whereas it

continued and precededthe crash this time, to rise far higher still after thecrash. So, perhaps Wall Street learned just how important oil production

and/or food production are to world economies, and has done its best tosafeguard its own money, and to transfer others money into their own

accounts to safeguard that as well?

If we can render energy supplies and food production more predictable,steady, and subject to democratic influence, perhaps the world will be able

to support more people with less waste and volatility, more predictably!

Therefore Linear Ecocities because, in the end, we must imagine how tomanage without a single drop of oil! And, we will more easily reach the goalof 100% sustainability the sooner that we start, and the quicker we

progress!

I have constructed this model as a goal at the end of the first curve in an

oval racecourse. I challenge anyone to provide a better, more sustainablemodel! At the same time, I am also happy to predict that all of us will not be

living in Linear Ecocities like those that I illustrate in 1,000 years and 10,000years. Just as car, medical and communications technologies have evolvedrapidly, the Linear Ecocity will also be subject to rapid evolution, including

paradigm change! At least, I hope so!

Nuclear Fusion! With a Roadmap

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