[Beowulf] Re: "hobbyists"

[Peter St. John]

Regarding:

[RGB] Fortunately, there isn't that much Uranium on the planet, and we're
burning it at a furious rate.  We could conceivably deplete the
currently known reserves in a matter of decades; it is NOT a long term
solution to the problem of fossil fuel use.

  rgb


Isn't there a scheme for creating fissionable material from more common
stuff (hafnium?) by bombarding it with neutrons excited out of their nuclei
by laster pulses? So one might make bombs without U235? (See e.g.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium#Applications)

Peter

P.S. Geothermal is a long term solution, maybe; see
http://geothermal.inel.gov/publications/future_of_geothermal_energy.pdf but
I'm still hoping for practicable fusion.
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