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Originally posted by jtroutma
Well, how can it create something from virtually nothing? I guess I am just confused.
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Actually it does not "create something from virtually nothing"
But really it produces more fuel than it consumes (about 25%, out of real life experiments), thanx to "fast neutrons". As i am not a nuclear scientist i'll point you to interesting references:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...ne/fasbre.html
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/thyd/ne1.../project5.html
For more try a search on "Fast Breeder Reactors".
What's interesting is instead of using water as conventional reactors do, "breeders" use liquid sodium... That's the main reason why those reactors where never used at full scale. (hot sodium + air = boOm... combine that with the fact no one knows what happens when those things explode...)
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One last thing that I can say is that we are constantly being bombarded by radiation from space.
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True, but at a very small fraction of what one would get in space... Thanx to upper atmosphere (ozone layer..) we get very few alpha rays, almost zero beta rays, and no gamma ray. Or else there would be no life out there... Gamma rays are lethal, even at small doses.
Going to a mountain trip (or skiing...) will expose you to ~10x times the normal dose of alpha radiation, due to altitude.
(edit) one more link, a more political / social point of view, very interesting:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...ngs/keeny.html