--- "Schroeppel, Richard" <rschroe@sandia.gov> wrote:
(It's getting distinctly toasty here in Utah, which suggested the questions below.)
1) So the Uranium in the ocean is enough to warm it up, but not to boil it. Suppose we also used the Deuterium, supposing fusion worked. Would that be enough?
D + D --> He4 + 24 MeV. Water is 55 molar H2O, and D is 1/6700, so D concentration is 17 mM or 10^22 D atoms/liter. Each D atom yields 12 MeV = 1.9x10^-12 J, and 1 liter yields 1.9x10^10 J. To boil that 1 liter starting from 20 C, you need (80+540) cal/g x 4.8 J/cal x 1000 g = 3x10^6 J.
2) You can't boil the ocean by raising it to 212F. First, you need another 540 calories/gram to convert to vapor. And second, after you've boiled a little bit of ocean, atmospheric pressure rises and you have to get the temperature higher to boil the next bit. (Atmospheric pressure is about 30 feet of water, so boiling the top 30 feet of ocean would double the pressure.) Is there some convergence, or would some critical point phenomenon set in as heat is added?
Rich
You easily have sufficient energy to heat the ocean to the critical point of water: 374 C, 220 atm. At the critical temperature, the liquid and vapor phases become identical. Gene __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com