I think when current politicos throw around "Manhattan Project" they forget that it was a short project, really short.  This is especially true when compared to the long expensive projects we now have underway (like fusion energy or fuel cell cars).  Wind and solar have paid off to some degree, but they also have been 30 year projects, essentially.

Basically if there was an Einstein who could write a letter saying "wait a minute, a magic bullet is possible on this energy stuff" then maybe we could do a crash construction and implementation project.  But that hasn't happened.

Instead we've had people misapplying the "Manhattan Project" symbolism, and making it mean "let's have a crash project to find a new idea" or "let's keep slogging away on this idea that we have."

Get Hollywood stars like George Clooney and Bruce Springsteen and others to go around America explaining the reasons behind this new national effort to make America energy independent by 2026. There is so much talent and energy going to waste in America. It's kind of tragic. Get some real national pride and patriotism working here! Let's have the Real Stuff back, not all this crap "Sham Partriotism" and "fake national pride" about the "Global War on Terror" and we're spending 7 billion a month in Iraq to bring them "democracy." Christ, it almost makes one want to weep, seeing how we're wasting time and resources, on a perverse "dream", resources that we need in other areas, like alternative energy. The U.S. is literally pissing away its future in the sand in the Middle East! Bring the boys home and put the money to good use in Ameica, not tax cuts for the super rich!

If America really is at war, let's start acting like we're really at war. Form a government of national unity, not the present government of national dis-unity. I mean America is a fantastic country, with an incredible culture, full of brilliant, smart and creative people - witness the Todders; and we allow a bunch of third-rate, incompetent lawyers to run the U.S. into the ground, how the hell did this every happen? It truly beggars belief. It's time for True American Patriots to take their country back, one way or another!

Returning to planet Earth for a moment, beamed down from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, have a nice weekend everyone, in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. It's really time to start taking those words seriously and thinking about what they really mean. Power to the People!

 You are correct in regard to the conservatism of the PEng fraternity. Manhattan Project engineering was handled not by engineers but by the best physicists available. Think of having a basic mechanical repair on your car undertaken by Murray Gell-man and Richard Feynman. Working from basic principles, they could perform the fix but today we would view such a process as a waste of scarce resources. I do not believe the same level of human resources are available. To the degree they are available, they speak chinese.

 Since neither Grove, nor anyone else, really understood what the physicists were up to, they were free to undertake a few leaps of faith and WAGs. They built two different production processes as they were not certain which one would work. Feynman invented parallel processing on punch card equipment and likely moved the project ahead by several years. All of this activity was funded by the unlimited pocketbook of Uncle Sam operating in a command economy where everything belonged to the state. Given the current insult to your constitution, do you really wish to encourage your government in this direction?

 America now has a debt problem. You are throwing close to a trillion dollars at Iraq and you are further from a solution then you were four years ago. Now you want to print more dollars and hope that your creditors applaud? Remember your creditors have a vested interest in black muck.

 And given the unlimited funding currently available to DARPA how is it they have not yet made the breakthrough?

THERMAL SCIENCE: Vol. 9 (2005), No. 3, pp. 69-83
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SOLAR DISH ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION
by Mihajlo FIRAK
Concentrating solar power technology relies on beam component of solar radiation i. e. on clear sky without clouds and short path length of radiation trough the atmosphere (air mass). Both conditions are fulfilled in dry and desert climate region of the Earth (usually located around north or south tropics +/-10°). In terms of irradiated solar energy (kW/hm2 per year) premium regions should receive more than 2550 kWh/m2 per year. Excellent regions receive 2370 to 2550, and good be tween 2200 and 2370 kWh/m2. For example, systems like SAIC/STM SunDish begin to work at solar flux above 400 W/m2 what is difficult to expect on a cloudy day. According to this, the best geography region are South-West part of North America, west costal part of SouthAmerica, north and south parts of Africa, Arabia peninsula, Central Asia, and Australia.
A short calculation which would rely on assumptions that only 1% of that dry and desert land could be utilised for solar power generation, and that it receives 2200 kWh/m2, we can produce 8.8 10^13 kWh/year of electricity. This is 7.3·10^9 tones of equivalent oil (toe) or 780 times more than global world primary energy consumption was in the year 2002 (9.4·106 toe [33]).
Assuming that one SAIC/STM SunDish system produces 35,000 kWh/year, it should be produced about 3.2 million systems to cover all world's primary energy needs. Assuming the cost of 20000 USD per system the whole price would be 64 billions USD.

"I don't think that a new 'Manhatten Project' is an unworkable or bad idea--if it is focused on getting energy from fusion..."

It's both terrible and unworkable. It's absolutely true that there is no single, simple reason that fusion is impossible. After all, the sun works on a version of fusion, as does the hydrogen bomb.

But on the empirical level, it's been worked on for over 50 years with tons of money spent on it, and success remains a constant 40 years in the future. That's a really big clue.

The other thing is, we're lucky fusion is so difficult to produce! Fire was relatively easy, which is why man discovered how to control it (mostly) a million years ago. Also, it occurs spontaneously, without human involvment. Fission is extremely rare sponstaneously in nature, at least now, although it seems there might have been  spontaneous fission reactions someplace in Africa, long ago. All that's really required is to whap two pieces of above critical mass U235 together. But U235 is less than 1% of uranium, and needs to be separated out. Anyway, it's at least conceivable that nature might somehow do this on its own under certain circumstances, but not too often or we would be in big trouble.

But hydrogen bombs are set off with regular uranium or plutonium (fission) bombs, which are in turn set off by chemical explosions. The fusion reaction is several order of magnitudes harder to get going that fission reactions. LUCKILY!

BTW, that's why cold fusion is such a crock. In any case, if, big IF, controlled fusion were ever to be possible it's becoming evident that it will necessarily be highly capital intensive and require an incredible degree of infrastructure support -- which is precisely what is becoming harder and harder to guarantee going forward.

It is my firm belief that we must no longer gamble on high-tech Manhattan-like projects saving us, but that we must proceed on the assumption they won't (while not abandoning all research on the possibility -- and do it internationally to save on expense -- and to get friendly with the rest of the globe?)

We are going to have to scale back on the high-capital-intensity stuff (energy, materials, etc.) and live within the energy and resource budget we think we will have -- that is, learn how to live sustainably. Anything else is a mad, mad gamble, which, if we lose, will cost us, or rather, our descendants, very dearly.

Unfortunately, modern capitalism (as well as Soviet style socialism), much prefers the highly capital-intensive solutions. But Shumacher's day will come (small is beautiful). Cuba has been forced into after getting orphaned.

I am no expert on the nuclear stuff and would love to see someone who is critique the above, for better ow worse.