<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>SuoDuanDao</author><text>As someone who worked around fracking wells as a roughneck, I see a lot wrong with your post.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;Majority of water used in hydro fracking is slick water. This is normal water with friction reducers added to it. Typically 1%.
This is like saying &amp;quot;dihidrogen monoxide is the largest component of acid rain&amp;quot;. Technically true, but the toxin is toxic enough even at low concentrations. You wouldn&amp;#x27;t enjoy having it in your eyes no matter how much of it is water that day. This is frankly a strange argument for someone who&amp;#x27;s worked with the stuff to make, it&amp;#x27;s not quite H2S but nobody I worked with took the toxicity lightly.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;The slick water is typically reused after the well back flows. 
That is what&amp;#x27;s told to the people in the office but it&amp;#x27;s not reliable. A volume of fluid is pumped down the well, the same volume is pumped back up. So long as there&amp;#x27;s no water at all downhole, you would recover only fracking fluid. Typically if people are worried about fracking, there is water downhole and no way of preventing mixing.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;If it is found there are any discrepancies they are fixed. 
The payment structure incentivises the field crews to under-report those kinds of errors. Some crews are diligent and take the reputational hit of reporting a fracking blowout, others simply kick some dirt over it. From my experience it&amp;#x27;s about 50-50. And in the latter case it certainly does often land on an unfortunate farmer&amp;#x27;s field.</text><parent_chain><item><author>solarhoma</author><text>There is a lot wrong with your post.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;They are not required to disclose the contents of the fracking wastewater fluid.&lt;p&gt;Majority of water used in hydro fracking is slick water. This is normal water with friction reducers added to it. Typically 1%. Though can change based on the design of the frack. These are maybe not disclosed to the public since they typically are proprietary formulas that each vendor creates on their own. Each wanting to protect their IP from other vendors supplying the friction reducers.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;It gets pumped back down underground where it dissipates into the rest of the water system.&lt;p&gt;This is the most inaccurate and hyperbolic part of your response. It is markedly false. The slick water is typically reused after the well back flows. They store the water onsite for the remaining wells. Or transport to another pad for continued hydro fracking use. Any water that is produced during well production is pumped into non-human use reservoirs. These disposal wells are called SWD’s, saltwater disposals. The depths of the wells vary, in our field it was 7500’. Whereas freshwater wells for human and cattle use were 300’. Regulatory bodies strictly manage the creation of SWD’s with significant research and paperwork to show the reservoir you are disposing into is not or has ever been used for human consumption. The water at this reservoir will not magically make its way into the freshwater reservoir.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;These people claim that it&amp;#x27;s safe for decades when our computer models can&amp;#x27;t predict the weather accurately next week.&lt;p&gt;This seems more emotionally driven than anything. Who are ‘these people’. How does this correlate to weather? I have worked with hundreds of wells that are +80 years old still in good standing. If the well integrity is in question a cement bond log is run, along with other logs. If it is found there are any discrepancies they are fixed. Or the well plugged and abandoned, is filled with cement and the wellhead removed.&lt;p&gt;I have not heard of fracking water ever being used for crops. 
Apologies for any spelling or grammar errors as I am on my phone writing this message.</text></item><item><author>humaniania</author><text>Natural gas is only inexpensive because of fracking.&lt;p&gt;With fracking in the USA at least the people involved can set up an LLC that dissolves after the well runs out. They are not required to disclose the contents of the fracking wastewater fluid. It gets pumped back down underground where it could dissipate into the rest of the water system. These people claim that it&amp;#x27;s safe for decades when our computer models can&amp;#x27;t predict the weather accurately next week.&lt;p&gt;In California now they&amp;#x27;re using fracking wastewater on crops because of the water shortages. Without disclosing what&amp;#x27;s in it. And not testing for if that stuff ends up in the food. These people are using loopholes to take the profits now and leave society with the bills for cleanup and the health consequences. That isn&amp;#x27;t sustainable or IMO fair or just. If the real cost of fossil fuels was clear up front they would not make sense.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;california&amp;#x2F;la-me-drought-oil-water-20150503-story.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;california&amp;#x2F;la-me-drought-oil-w...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>rfrey</author><text>Meta-question about fusion energy -something I don&amp;#x27;t understand about the movement. I spent a few years as CTO of a company providing heat-to-electricity plants. We financed and built them off high-heat plants like natural gas turbines. The &amp;quot;fuel&amp;quot; was heat going up the stack - so it was essentially free. We still couldn&amp;#x27;t compete with conventional electricity plants, even with a $30&amp;#x2F;tonne price on carbon in Canada.&lt;p&gt;Geothermal energy is the same: sustainable, long-life electricity with no &amp;quot;fuel&amp;quot; costs, but it costs 2-3x as much to build a geothermal plant (in most areas, depends on geology) as e.g. a natural gas turbine powered plant, so the overall cost of electricity is much higher and you can&amp;#x27;t get financing.&lt;p&gt;How is fusion different? The fuel will be free and unlimited, but the &amp;quot;levelized cost of electricity&amp;quot;, dominated by the capital cost of the plant, will still be much higher than other sources of electricity. I don&amp;#x27;t think there&amp;#x27;s a world -- even one where the onerous regulations go away and a  market price on carbon is available -- where the LCOE of fusion power is less than that from natural gas, or even close.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab</title><url>https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/228373/major-nuclear-fusion-milestone-reached-ignition/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>specialp</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;gt;They are not required to disclose the contents of the fracking wastewater fluid.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;Majority of water used in hydro fracking is slick water. This is normal water with friction reducers added to it. Typically 1%. Though can change based on the design of the frack. These are maybe not disclosed to the public since they typically are proprietary formulas that each vendor creates on their own. Each wanting to protect their IP from other vendors supplying the friction reducers.&lt;p&gt;How does this make the claim that they are not required to disclose the contents of the waste water false? Are friction reducers mostly similar and non toxic? It is irrelevant that it is 99% water as most industrial waste is mostly water. If I pumped out water that was 99% water and 1% mercury it would be incredibly toxic. The issue is certain chemicals end up lingering in water and bio accumulating for a very long time.</text><parent_chain><item><author>solarhoma</author><text>There is a lot wrong with your post.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;They are not required to disclose the contents of the fracking wastewater fluid.&lt;p&gt;Majority of water used in hydro fracking is slick water. This is normal water with friction reducers added to it. Typically 1%. Though can change based on the design of the frack. These are maybe not disclosed to the public since they typically are proprietary formulas that each vendor creates on their own. Each wanting to protect their IP from other vendors supplying the friction reducers.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;It gets pumped back down underground where it dissipates into the rest of the water system.&lt;p&gt;This is the most inaccurate and hyperbolic part of your response. It is markedly false. The slick water is typically reused after the well back flows. They store the water onsite for the remaining wells. Or transport to another pad for continued hydro fracking use. Any water that is produced during well production is pumped into non-human use reservoirs. These disposal wells are called SWD’s, saltwater disposals. The depths of the wells vary, in our field it was 7500’. Whereas freshwater wells for human and cattle use were 300’. Regulatory bodies strictly manage the creation of SWD’s with significant research and paperwork to show the reservoir you are disposing into is not or has ever been used for human consumption. The water at this reservoir will not magically make its way into the freshwater reservoir.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;These people claim that it&amp;#x27;s safe for decades when our computer models can&amp;#x27;t predict the weather accurately next week.&lt;p&gt;This seems more emotionally driven than anything. Who are ‘these people’. How does this correlate to weather? I have worked with hundreds of wells that are +80 years old still in good standing. If the well integrity is in question a cement bond log is run, along with other logs. If it is found there are any discrepancies they are fixed. Or the well plugged and abandoned, is filled with cement and the wellhead removed.&lt;p&gt;I have not heard of fracking water ever being used for crops. 
Apologies for any spelling or grammar errors as I am on my phone writing this message.</text></item><item><author>humaniania</author><text>Natural gas is only inexpensive because of fracking.&lt;p&gt;With fracking in the USA at least the people involved can set up an LLC that dissolves after the well runs out. They are not required to disclose the contents of the fracking wastewater fluid. It gets pumped back down underground where it could dissipate into the rest of the water system. These people claim that it&amp;#x27;s safe for decades when our computer models can&amp;#x27;t predict the weather accurately next week.&lt;p&gt;In California now they&amp;#x27;re using fracking wastewater on crops because of the water shortages. Without disclosing what&amp;#x27;s in it. And not testing for if that stuff ends up in the food. These people are using loopholes to take the profits now and leave society with the bills for cleanup and the health consequences. That isn&amp;#x27;t sustainable or IMO fair or just. If the real cost of fossil fuels was clear up front they would not make sense.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;california&amp;#x2F;la-me-drought-oil-water-20150503-story.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;local&amp;#x2F;california&amp;#x2F;la-me-drought-oil-w...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>rfrey</author><text>Meta-question about fusion energy -something I don&amp;#x27;t understand about the movement. I spent a few years as CTO of a company providing heat-to-electricity plants. We financed and built them off high-heat plants like natural gas turbines. The &amp;quot;fuel&amp;quot; was heat going up the stack - so it was essentially free. We still couldn&amp;#x27;t compete with conventional electricity plants, even with a $30&amp;#x2F;tonne price on carbon in Canada.&lt;p&gt;Geothermal energy is the same: sustainable, long-life electricity with no &amp;quot;fuel&amp;quot; costs, but it costs 2-3x as much to build a geothermal plant (in most areas, depends on geology) as e.g. a natural gas turbine powered plant, so the overall cost of electricity is much higher and you can&amp;#x27;t get financing.&lt;p&gt;How is fusion different? The fuel will be free and unlimited, but the &amp;quot;levelized cost of electricity&amp;quot;, dominated by the capital cost of the plant, will still be much higher than other sources of electricity. I don&amp;#x27;t think there&amp;#x27;s a world -- even one where the onerous regulations go away and a  market price on carbon is available -- where the LCOE of fusion power is less than that from natural gas, or even close.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab</title><url>https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/228373/major-nuclear-fusion-milestone-reached-ignition/</url></story>