🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1hb3nkINNmgv@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, wb8foz@skybridge.SCL.CWRU.Edu (David Lesher) writes:
> Others said:
> # It doesn't sound like you have been listening either.  In the event of
> # a catastrophic failure, gasoline burns, it does not explode.  The energy
> # contained in the tank is released over a period of 15 to 20 minutes.
> # 
> # The flywheel will try to dissipate it is energy over a span of milliseconds.
> 
> Errr,
> Try telling the three people who burned to death in the tanker/
> multi-car crash at the I 270/Beltway intersection that it is ok that
> gasoline burns over 15-20 minutes. That may be true, but they are still
> dead, regardless of how long their remains cooked.

I am fully aware of that disaster.  Note that several people survived who were
involved in the accident including one who drove through the flames.  Now
would those people have preferred something that released its energy so
quickly that they, too, would not have gotten out alive?

I was not trying to pretend gasoline is not dangerous.  It is just much less
dangerous than a flywheel explosion.  The distaster you point to should only
make people that much more wary of this flywheel proposal.  Now, I have
also pointed out that no flywheel portable in a car can be designed to
store the energy required, so we needn't really worry about such an explosion.
That is part of the argument.  Also, the tanker truck contains 1000's of
gallons of gas.  Its fire is much more devastating than anything a little
10 gallon gas tank can generate.


--
Richard Stead
Center for Seismic Studies
Arlington, VA
stead@seismo.css.gov