• ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    If we could consume uranium, you could have a teaspoon’s worth and be done with eating for the rest of your life.

    • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I was thinking the same thing. It’s unfair compare chemical energy to nuclear energy. Coal still kind of sucks, but the hydrogen in the others could definitely be used in fusion…

      • Shayeta@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        It is perfectly fair in the context of “fuel”, a resource used to produce energy. Whether energy is generated via chemical or nuclear reaction is irrelavent in this case.

  • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Uranium generates that energy by fission. The hydrogen in sugar could generate huge amounts of energy if fused.

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      And this boulder could generate huge amounts of energy if I pushed it up to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro and let it roll down.

      44 upvotes and 0 downvotes for a comment that doesn’t understand that energy density measurements like this tend to measure the useful energy of a system.

      • davidgro@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Serious answer: A huge negative amount. Anything above iron requires energy to fuse (which is why it produces energy from fission.) and I’m pretty sure nothing with 184 protons could be stable enough to count as being produced - the nuclei would be more smashed apart than merging at that point.

      • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Using the rule of thumb, anything heavier than iron requires energy input to fuse. So you lose energy fusing uranium.