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Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt

marathonfusion.com

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Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt

#91

Post by robocat »

modeless wrote: post #34
floxy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Industrial gold demand for use in electronics is about 250 tonnes per year. Much of that likely doesn't care about slight radioactivity?

Maybe you wouldn't use that gold for bond wires (but they are less used now and mostly copper AFAIK).

Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt

#93

Post by jlogelin »

modeless wrote: post #6

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…

I mean, as a species we dig up gold for the sole purpose of putting it into well protected vaults as a store of value. It's not a far cry to say we'll simply store the radioactive gold in lead vaults instead. But yeah, if we can print rare earth metals now, I won't be betting on them to store economic value.

Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt

#95

Post by OutOfHere »

anigbrowl wrote: post #8

Silver stackers win again /s

After some studying, there is absolutely no stable element cannot be synthesized using the neutron supply of a fusion reactor. Silver is relatively easy to synthesize from cadmium.

This leaves us with certain cryptocurrencies.

Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt

#96

Post by OutOfHere »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #63

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…

To update, yes, only Bitcoin and Litecoin remain. Monero has some tail emissions, although they safeguard the network, so it's still good.

The point is that there is absolutely no stable element that cannot be synthesized using the neutron output of a fusion reactor.

Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt

#97

Post by dr_dshiv »

modeless wrote: post #52
shutupnerd0000 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine a whiskey manufacturer saying "this is impossible because we'll have to age it for 13 years" lel

Imagine a whiskey manufacturer saying "our whiskey is radioactive but it's ok because it will be less radioactive by the time you drink it!"

“Our whiskey is carcinogenic but it’s ok because…”

Said every whiskey manufacturer ever.

Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt

#98

Post by dr_dshiv »

floxy wrote: post #86
mxmlnkn wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that section is fitting and interesting. It is the production-side view. I think I was more motivated by the comments envisioning an abundance of cheap gold, which seems not in any way near or even possible, even with this approach as cool and baffling as it is. I don't think that it is of much use as waste disposal because again, it can only remove 10%, i.e., an insignificant amount. If it were even mined becau…

This seems more like a way to help kick-start commercially viable fusion plants, rather than a way to mass produce gold.

Man, this is definitely a 2025 hacker news comment. Amazing.

Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt

#99

Post by zeristor »

Won’t the price of gold decrease.

This can just scale, if the price of gold is factored into the economics of the process, then the price of gold would bottom out at the price of this process.

Besides I was hoping mining asteroids funded by gold, avoiding busting the market would encourage space industry.

Re: Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt

#100

Post by dr_dshiv »

ricksunny wrote: post #89
readthenotes1 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I knew mercury was involved. Just knew it!" https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/newtons-recipe-for-alche...

Good lord, chemistryworld. >"Historians now know that this was a pseudonym invented by the Harvard-educated chemist George Starkey, one of the US’s first published scientists. Starkey moved to England in 1650,..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Starkey

Man is amazing. Bummer about the plague.

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