Current energy issues

Concerning fission, there exists Helium-4, but Helium-3, having only one neutron, would be *extremely* unstable and any discussion of it would seem impractical; such a nuclear core would deteriorate in femtoseconds or faster. I have commonly heard of Hydrogen-3, also called Tritium, in discussions of fussion, so my guess is that this is the correct reference. Now, Tritium, also called heavy water, because it is usually harvested in that form, has enough mass to assist the process in slamming the nuleii together for fusion. The increased mass provides more momentum which resists the nuclear deflecting forces. Now continuous fusion has been around for at least a decade, but the duration of fusion has always been far too short to net positive returns on power. The reason for the brevity of the fusion process is that the incredible energy release quickly overpowers our ability to maintain the required pressures and temperatures. BTW, scientists have always projected fusion to be 50 years from the point in time at which they are asked the question about its viability. I just chalk it up to them saying that they don't know but they are seeing very slow progress.

On the oil issue, most of the world has been mapped with crude images (pun intended) and most of the significant, easy oil reserves are known. Now deep sea (past the continental shelves) has not been imaged or drilled very well and much of the land has also been practically ignored. It is kind of like taking large pictures of the whole sky and then looking deep into the sky at all of the places where you expect to see life (based upon rough theories of the development of life), and then (incorrectly) saying that you've found most of the life in the universe. Whenever someone talks about oil reservoirs, ask how their sizes and capabilities have been assessed for their numbers/claims. Do they include the proprietary data held secret by the oil companies as they implement their strategic business goals? I should think not. Do they include shale oil, oil sands, or oil on protected lands (say thank you to the environmentalists)? Protections on Alaska, and the entire region around Utah are being lifted as we speak. Do they include more difficult oil reservoirs, where 100 wells are required for the same production that one well used to generate? This is the situation for the new oilfields in northern Canada.

Now as far as shale oil, the method of extraction is mainly heat, but also pressure. The crude is brought to such a high temperature that it exits the pores of the fractured rock in a gaseous form, not necessarily as natural gas alone, including diesel, kerosine, gasoline, hexane, butane, and methane. All of these forms are easily separated and processed, according to the current petroleum needs. It is all a matter of chemically combining or splitting the carbon chains via organic chemistry, or of stripping off the hydrogen from the chains to generate hydrogen gas. Natural gas may be converted into gasoline or diesel (at a small expense) and vice versa, with the option to convert most of any of the forms into hydrogen gas for a hydrogen economy (see the hydrogen car or fuel cell). So the petroleum is extracted as a gas, but not necessarily "natural gas" and with a small expense, the desired form of "crude oil" may be synthesized from the purified shale oil extracts; the technology and methods have existed since the 1980's (when fuel prices went "through the roof" for a time) and are in use today. The only element of development these days is efficiency.

BTW, according to a recent article, the US shale oil reservoirs are estimated at around 97% (or higher) of the world shale oil reserves, and 7 times the crude oil estimates for Saudi Arabia, but again some knowledge affecting those numbers is guarded and additional knowledge from better and expanded geological imaging and interpretation both increase those numbers on a daily basis.

The question isn't when we run out of oil, but when the price of oil becomes uncompetitive with other energy sources (hydrogen not being a source, but a storage mechanism). My question is when are we going to start (safely) recycling our nuclear fissile fuel and thus slow our nuclear waste generation, which typically contains between 97% purity (military) and 99% purity (civilian) reactor fuel minimum requirement?