Fat Old Sun (On A Diet)

More Pink Floyd Allusions
After all, a struggling prog rock band need all the help they can get in terms of publicity, wouldn't you say?
     I hesitate to explain here, since a joke ought to stand on it's own three feet, but for the sake of those who are not up to speed on 1970's progressive/psychedelic rock, let us continue.

No Animals were harmed during the making of this record.

     "Fat Old Sun" is a track from Pink Floyd's 1970 album (as they were called then) "Atom Heart Mother", and is a quite lyrical appreciation of the bucolic, pastoral qualities of the Allotment of Eden's landscape.  Art?

Pointy pointy.  All it needs is some Byrds.

     "Yes, quite," I hear you question.  "What on earth does this have to do with calorific intake and that horrid quinoa stuff?"
     Be patient! and I also suggest trying barley groats instead of quinoa, for I shall explicate.
     What is the sun?  Apart from offering a million pun-laden explanations, it is also a gigantic ball of nuclear fusion taking place as hydrogen atoms are compressed together to form helium.  Individually this wouldn't amount to anything; on the scale of the sun - well, we are a long way off and it still raises the atmospheric temperature to as much as 5 or 60C in northern Scotland.  Now, you don't need to take Conrad's word for all this astronomical information, there are probes headed - oh, excuse me, Roger Waters wants a word -

That's Roger for you: intense, if a little off-target

     Actually, 6 million miles from the surface of the sun.  I suppose that's artistic licence? Whatever.  Have a look at the Helios probe, which is destined to approach Sol at that distance mentioned.  Art?

No!  This is not a still from "Sunshine".

      There.  I think that's the background milieu established, though I could probably squeeze out a few more Pink Floyd connections if the - no?  Definitely not?  "Definitely" as in "I will sacrifice my spouse and children rather than have achingly tenuous alleged "links" between real life and some band put before me"?
     Just wanted to be clear.
     Okay, now for - where was I?  O that's right.  Fusion reactions.  You might be interested to know that in "The Expanse", both novels and television program, the McGuffin that has delivered the entire Solar System to Hom. Sap. in a handbasket is power derived from nuclear fusion.  It's that simple.

Naomi:  Simple?  Our lives are simple?  Simple! I'll -
Jim:  Go easy on Conrad.  He's got a word count to hit and a theme to promulgate.

     Wow - thanks for the support, Jim!  Mind you - er - you do have a track record of doing the wrong thing for the right reasons - anyway, moving along at an acceleration of 10G -
     What this post is about concerns a recent sidebar on the fount of all that's fit to writ, that is, the BBC.  They were talking about "Miniature suns", and how cheap*, clean, cheap* energy from nuclear fusion reactors is getting closer.  Did we mention cheap*?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46219656

     Therein the link.  The thing about nuclear fusion is that it does not create the horrid by-products of nuclear fission, at least when done at laboratory scale.  Quite what happens in the real world when you have a fusion reactor powering London is another matter, because remember when the nuclear fission reactor people were promoting their cause?  "Energy too cheap* to meter!" they boasted.

It would supplant oil and coal-fired power stations, for one thing.

     So, it looks like there may be a tranche of fusion reactors able to economically generate power, which will be coming on-line within a generation**.  My title refers to the slimmed-down aspect of these power plants, as they need to compete with conventional coal or oil-fired plants in terms of size.  After all, a power plant that occupies 254 square miles when the fossil-fuelled equivalent takes up 2.54 is not reallllly getting better, is it?

Fusion reactor.  Sorry, no puny humans for scale.

     Another thing about fusion reactors is what they use to create the fusion process - isotopes of Helium.  These are not exactly lying around on street corners, as they are in fact fantastically rare.  There is a postulated source within reasonable reach, where human beings have walked already, though it does take a bit of an effort to reach there.  Art?


     Either side would do, to be honest.  I cannot see it happening soon, mind you, but you mark my words: one of these days we'll be up there mining Helium3; one of these days -

Oh!  What a coincidence!

*  The Treasury is interested.
**  Possibly not my generation, so no The Who puns here today.