Didnt the Soviet Union sell Alaska to the USA for like $50 million or something?

It was USSR to USA though... Canada keep themselves to themselves generally

On fusion: >>

1. I think it is much further off as a commercial power source than 15 years. Yes ITER is a big step in the right direction, and they do expect it to exceed the break-even point, but I don't think it is considered to be a viable design. it is still just a research prototype.>>

2. There is absolutely no potential as far as I know for seriously destructive accidents with fusion plants. the amount of hydrogen being fused at any one time is far to little for a runaway reaction, and if containment failed, all that would happen is that parts of the reaction chamber would be vaporized by the escaping plasma. I'm pretty sure the fusion would cease almost instantly. This is in contrast with a fission plant where if the control system fails (impossible, or nearly so in an American design) the fuel can run away in a chain reaction.>>

Even if there was potential for an explosion A complete failure of one of these plants would be nowhere near as destructive as a small thermonuclear weapon in any case, and last time I checked, all those tests in the 50s and 60s did nothing more than vaporize a few islands and spread fallout over New Mexico and Nevada.... we still have an atmosphere.>>

>>

On Fuel Cells:>>

Basic thermodynamics: cars cannot use water for "fuel" there is no chemical energy to be had. You can electrolyze water and use the resulting hydrogen as fuel, however, this VERY inefficient process. People have been working for years to obtain efficient catalysts for this process and so far have met with only failure. However, even if this was efficient, you still have to get the energy from somewhere. You cannot get out more energy than you put in? there is nothing magic about fuel cells. Think of them as batteries which have a continuous flow of the required chemicals.>>

The main question for fuel cells becomes where do you get the fuel? If you reform petroleum to produce hydrogen or methanol they are no better than the systems we already have. They produce just as much CO2, although I suppose you might cut down on NOX emissions.>>

The only sensible solution is to produce the fuel from biological sources. if the fuel is made form corn or some such source, then any CO2 we put into the atmosphere is then taken out again by the plants which produce the fuel. this is sort of an ideal system, however Fuel Cell technology simply has not reached the point where they are viable for mass power production. The place you will see them first is as replacements for batteries. won?t it be fantastic when your laptop has essentially unlimited run time? Toshiba is supposed to introduce fuel cell powered models sometime next year

The most dangerous waste fusion produces is tritium (H-3) which has a half-life of 12.3 years and can be used in further fusion. In addition tritium is a comercialy valueable substance in and of itself and decays into a stable isotope of helium, so even if you just had to store the stuff, it would become completely harmless within 120 years.

Fission plants on the other hand tend to produce long-lived high-level waste such as Pu-239 which has a halflife of 24,110 years. at this rate of decay you would need to store the stuff for ~240,000 years! an impossible feat for todays engineering practices.

If most radioactive waste from fission decayed within 100 years, it would be a nearly perfect energy source! that is an incredibly short period of time. Hence, Fusion is a perfect energy source from every point of view.

1. limitless fuel

2. zero polution

3. huge ammounts of energy per unit fuel

In fact, you would only need 437 metric tons of duterium to meet the worlds energy demand for a year.... that is absulutly awsome!

edit/

Sorry for the attitude about fuel cells Crono. I have the sense that the general public has a terribly unrealisitc impression of how they work and what they are capable of. That little diatribe wasn't really directed at you.