From: [email protected] ➢ What bothered me most, is that the device is a "one shot", IOW it gets destroyed and replaced with each reaction. Now I haven't run the numbers, but intuitively I suspect that the cost of the little device is going to exceed the monetary value of the energy produced in a single shot.
Robin, This fellow Hora is nearby to you in NSW, no ? Does he have a good reputation? The added fabrication cost for targets would be true even of the ‘hohlraum’ as used at Livermore with the gigantic laser. A mass production robotic factory would need to be nearby to make the targets. If we are to believe the estimates, apparently he suggests that 10^e5 more energy per pulse can be had than with current systems which require many explosions per second. He is talking about one explosion per second – which is about 30 million per year. If each target costs 10 cents, that is an extra 3 million of added cost, or if it is one dollar per target, then 30 Million/year just for targets. If the capacity is one gigawatt and the electricity price to the customer brings in 5 cents per kWhr, then the income from operations is $400,000,000 year. Even at one dollar per target the cost of mass produced devices is manageable for that amount of cash flow … if the assumption of a gigawatt power plant can operate at one pulse per second. See reference 45 where he outlines the details of a running system - which are not completely clear.
