71–80 of 104 posts
If about 4 million KG of gold is normally produced a year, then this newly available gold will quickly drive down prices, leaving only Bitcoin as a store of value. Talk about unintended consequences…
Silver stackers win again /s
Unfortunately 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…
It reminded me of avocado trees. They take a couple of years to produce avocados and still people plant those.
Even 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.
This is such a fun topic to think about, it's nearly science-fiction. The problem with fusion plants is that they don't exist except as small experimental reactors. I think this could be retrofitted to existing fission plants, pumping mercury 198 gas around the outside of the core (in heat-resistant pipes of course). Still an expensive proposition as you'd want to certify that it's not going to affect the safety and…
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.
Unfortunately 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…
But I think it may actually end up in jewelry especially as it can be mixed with “natural” gold to reduce its signature even further.
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth...
Unfortunately 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…
Actual industrial/product use of gold is less than 10%. A massive amount of gold is used for store of wealth. If gold became less scarce, it would be less expensive. The Washington monument capstone is aluminum because aluminum was expensive in 1884. Now we make beverage containers out of aluminum. (note: I have no intention of using gold for beverage containers... I like my skin not blue )
> (note: I have no intention of using gold for beverage containers... I like my skin not blue) I thought gold was biologically inert. Any chance you’re thinking of argyria, which is caused by exposure to elemental silver?
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.
We just have to figure out how to nudge Mercury into the Sun… cheaply.