World


Recommended Posts

Scientists recently pulled together the pieces of the world?s most powerful laser and, in a first-ever complete dry run, pulled the trigger on a peppercorn-sized pellet of nuclear fuel. The energy crushed the capsule instantly, causing it to spew a shower of neutrons. In short: It worked.

The firing of the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, located 40 or so miles east of San Francisco, wasn?t an earnest attempt at a more-energy-out-than-you-put-in ?ignition? of fusion, the same process that merges atoms at the sun?s core ? and the facility?s ultimate goal. Yet the staff and independent researchers working with the $3.5 billion machine have reason to be optimistic about achieving fusion within two years, even if much of the device?s time is earmarked for defense research and prospects of near-limitless and pollution-free energy aren?t certain.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/laser-fusion-ignition/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Giant Frikkin laser?

Next up sharks with lasers attached to their heads :D

I think I saw something about this laser before, amazing bit of kit to focus that much energy on such a small spot. Hopefully we will see some sort of return from it for non-military applications

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So let me get this right... as a poor example:

Someone currently peddles for 24 hours gets 24 hours worth of fuel. But with this new technology, someone peddles for 24 hours could end up with 48 hours worth of fuel?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So let me get this right... as a poor example:

Someone currently peddles for 24 hours gets 24 hours worth of fuel. But with this new technology, someone peddles for 24 hours could end up with 48 hours worth of fuel?

Well it uses fuel, but fusion instead of fission. so like a fission plant, you need to put power into it, but you get massively more power out. Fusion just happens to do the same without the nuclear waste. And you need a lot more power to get the thing going to start with. Though I do believe some test facilities have already achiever more power out than in, but it's been only for a fraction of a second, and would barely have been enough to keep the lasers operating if they could have sustained it. The problem isn't really achieving fusion. it's controlling the damn reaction and keeping it in place. hence the big huge magnetic spheres and donuts at the various facilities.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So let me get this right... as a poor example:

Someone currently peddles for 24 hours gets 24 hours worth of fuel. But with this new technology, someone peddles for 24 hours could end up with 48 hours worth of fuel?

The article says, "the promise of developing a safe fusion energy source that releases 30-40 times the energy put in". Of course that's just theoretical.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...

Though I do believe some test facilities have already achiever more power out than in, but it's been only for a fraction of a second, and would barely have been enough to keep the lasers operating if they could have sustained it. The problem isn't really achieving fusion. it's controlling the damn reaction and keeping it in place. hence the big huge magnetic spheres and donuts at the various facilities.

Yeah, we've achieved better than even power output, but it's only a one shot deal. i.e. they fuse the fuel within the reactor, then have to shut it down for small repairs and refuelling.

When we get to the point where we can keep the reactors running and fusing, then that's where stuff gets interesting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well that is why they're building the test reactors in Europe and US. If I remember correctly the US is going for the Sphere type while the French one is going to be potentially more powerful and uses the donut ring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well it uses fuel, but fusion instead of fission. so like a fission plant, you need to put power into it, but you get massively more power out. Fusion just happens to do the same without the nuclear waste. And you need a lot more power to get the thing going to start with. Though I do believe some test facilities have already achiever more power out than in, but it's been only for a fraction of a second, and would barely have been enough to keep the lasers operating if they could have sustained it. The problem isn't really achieving fusion. it's controlling the damn reaction and keeping it in place. hence the big huge magnetic spheres and donuts at the various facilities.

As far as I am aware, no research facility has reached a "unity" or "beyond unity" point in energy on *any* fusion system, because of the incredible amount of energy needed to create a fusion reaction, by either the "laser implosion" (as in the NIF system) or "magnetic confinement" (as in "Tokamak" designs). If that were the case, Mr. Fusion would already be a "Blue-Light Special" at K-Mart.

--ScottKin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It can't happen soon enough, then we can leave all the oil in the ground and use cheap electricity instead. No more billions of petrodollars for OPEC!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So let me get this right... as a poor example:

Someone currently peddles for 24 hours gets 24 hours worth of fuel. But with this new technology, someone peddles for 24 hours could end up with 48 hours worth of fuel?

A bit like this yeah. Except someone peddles for 24 hours but ends up with weeks worth of energy all without the sweat (Nuclear waste)... at l;east that's what i thought it was... i could be wrong so anyone feel free to correct me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As far as I am aware, no research facility has reached a "unity" or "beyond unity" point in energy on *any* fusion system, because of the incredible amount of energy needed to create a fusion reaction, by either the "laser implosion" (as in the NIF system) or "magnetic confinement" (as in "Tokamak" designs). If that were the case, Mr. Fusion would already be a "Blue-Light Special" at K-Mart.

--ScottKin

They have, but read The_decryptors post above. the time of actual positive energy output is measured in milliseconds before the reaction itself destroys the equipment.

What we haven't achieved is stable sustainable fusion. and technically we haven't reached positive output since we've been pumping a lot more energy into the reaction before the positive occurs. But if you only count the last few milliseconds before failure, we have had positive, output. but only barely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.