o all.
In this iteration we take a look at the possibilities of an old, but as yet unrealized power source: fusion.
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceno...on.html?ref=hp
In a nuts , fusion entails pressing two hydrogen isotopes (H2, H3) together until the coloumb barrier is breached. The nuclei then merge, resulting in the release of a large amount of energy (and neutrons....but that's another quandry altogetherResearchers at the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will announce in a Physical Review Letters (PRL) paper accepted for publication that their process, known as magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) and first proposed 2 years ago, has passed the first of three tests, putting it on track for an attempt at the coveted break-even. Tests of the remaining components of the process will continue next year, and the team expects to take its first shot at fusion before the end of 2013.). The central issue is, of course, the fact that one needs to input more energy than is yielded.
Various approaches have been proposed (usually involving pulsed lasers), but the group in this article utilizes magnetic confinement or so called inertial confinement fusion. A magnetic field is applied to a small cylinder with the resulting magnetic force (which, if one remembers back to high school, acts in a direction perpendicular to the field) to crush it. This compresses and heats the fuel inside.
The group sees a three step approach as being the most feasible and hopes to have a "break-even" experiment set up by 2013.
Those dudes down the street are smart. So are the dudes a bit north up on the super volcano at Los Alamos. Too bad neither place really has any studies on anything I am looking at.
Visited a symposium at Sandia a couple of months ago and it really seems like an incredible environment for someone who wants to explore new things. I can see why they cultivate brilliant minds so well there.
The JJ Pickle Research Center in Austin has/had a tokamak that was being used to research that line of science, using magnetic support on a plasma heated by pulsed lasers. Pretty neat device, they got some patents along that line but not at the level of Sandia obviously.
gonna go back to school and get a 2nd degree in physics so i can talk politics on ST imho
crofl you can always spot out the fake intellectuals
You mean like -laude finance majors who haven't yet figured out how to open a Credit Union account?
BOOM.
I have always believed fusion can become our energy source. I'm disappointed we haven't seen actual results yet.
what's that slurping noise
I'm sure the Cancer patients are feeling disappointed also.
I always think of you as a person who has to concentrate really hard just to breathe.
I'm stealing that DR.
I've found the research environment at Sandia to be top notch. I'm lucky to have collaborated on a few side projects with them in the past.
You sure you can't be lured to the dark side Manny? Nuclear science can always stand to have another objective mind in the mix.
I've heard of this. Do you happen to know what became of it? Is it still considered a viable road forward or has it hit a dead end?
Harsh....but funny.
I haven't heard anything of it since the mid 90's.
in fact fusion has been the only source of all energy on the earth for billions of years, as the sun is just a huge fusion plant
What proof you have the earth is billions of years old?
What proof do you have that it isn't?
I disagree with these assessments.... worked at both places. Smart people work there, but management kills most ideas. Most things that get pushed to the front of the line are defense related. This experiment is an offshoot of a device meant to simulate weapon detonation. They call it "pulsed power", pretty funny.
I've found the research environment at Sandia to be top notch. I'm lucky to have collaborated on a few side projects with them in the past.
You sure you can't be lured to the dark side Manny? Nuclear science can always stand to have another objective mind in the mix.
Sorry to hear that you've had a bad experience with them. Do you believe that this research will find break even? Or is it possibly a cover for some other, darker purpose?
If it does, it will be by coincidence. Although that is the nature of this kind of research anyway.
Now to the lottery tickets.
I'm not surprised on the defense front. When I was there almost every project I saw was a computer science project related to security of some sort although there were a couple of energy projects as well.
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