It requires mercury-198 as an input. The only quote I could find for mercury-198 is about $15K per milligram.
So now we just need to figure out how to make mercury-198 cheaply.
Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt
31–40 of 104 posts
Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt
#32Tl;dr - they wrote a paper
Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
The gold is a byproduct of generating the electricity. You still get to sell the electricity too.
Wait, really?
Yes, that is their selling point
Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt
#34Unfortunately gold generated in this way would be radioactive. They calculate they would have to store the gold for over 13 years to not require labeling as radioactive waste, or over 17 years to reach the level of radioactivity of a banana. I bet it would still be less valuable than regular gold even after that. It could still be identified, and people would discriminate against it. People are funny about nuclear wa…
>In practice, given that much of all gold is used to store value and is not actively in use, we do not expect the need to store it for 7–17 years to be a major impediment; at worst, it means that the product will initially have somewhat less value than pure 197Au, and so some discount should be applied to the value of freshly produced gold.
You guys have a lot more faith than I do in people's ability to have rational beliefs about nuclear waste.
Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt
#35Even if this were true, at 0.15 USD/kWh it would cost more than just buying the gold. Even excluding cost of cleaning up the radioactivity, the equipment, labor, everything except the power. A GW-year is 8760 GWh. That's 8760/5000 = 1.75 GWh per kg of gold. At 0.15 USD/kWh, a GWh costs $150k US. So 1.75GWh costs about $263k. A kg of gold costs about 100k US.
The gold is a byproduct of generating the electricity. You still get to sell the electricity too.
Gold is atomically heavier than iron, fusing gold costs energy. The language in the article is ambiguous, but I believe the energy quoted is a cost.
Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt
#36I dont trust a site that simultaneously says "we are performing a once in a century technical feat" and "we can only say great things about this like we are selling something and not mention potential pitfalls".
Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt
#37[deleted]
Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
The gold is a byproduct of generating the electricity. You still get to sell the electricity too.
Gold is atomically heavier than iron, fusing gold costs energy. The language in the article is ambiguous, but I believe the energy quoted is a cost.
It's produced from mercury
Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt
#39Isaac Newton must be spinning in his grave.
Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt
#40Even if this were true, at 0.15 USD/kWh it would cost more than just buying the gold. Even excluding cost of cleaning up the radioactivity, the equipment, labor, everything except the power. A GW-year is 8760 GWh. That's 8760/5000 = 1.75 GWh per kg of gold. At 0.15 USD/kWh, a GWh costs $150k US. So 1.75GWh costs about $263k. A kg of gold costs about 100k US.
The gold is a byproduct of generating the electricity. You still get to sell the electricity too.
Yeah, but the gold price is going to drop ...