NIF delivers 500 terawatts to fusion target

laserfocusworld.com ^ | 16 July 2012 | Gail Overton

[smokingfrog]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory News

[Vince Ferrer]

[muleskinner]

Nuclear fusion that much closer.

[JRandomFreeper]

Squeeze harder!

/johnny

[ottbmare]

You’re good.

[wastedyears]

Bad idea if the writers wanted to do any conceivable real-world physics. This is what happens.

[DManA]

I hear it’s only 20 years away after this.

[JRandomFreeper]

I hear it’s only 20 years away after this.

It is! Just like 40 years ago.

Wait...

/johnny

[Graewoulf]

Good Find! Thanks!

[editor-surveyor]

>> “Nuclear fusion that much closer.” <<

.
Not too sure of that now.

I did the layout when they were converting from “Nova” to the “Shiva” laser system there, back in the ‘80s. At that time they had estimated that about one millionth of that much power was going to do the job ‘soon.’

What next? They’ll be dimming the lights of the whole Bay Area when they reach the next level from this. (if we don’t just go broke first)

They don’t appear to be any closer than the late Kip Seagal was when he started with an Army surplus laser and his own bank account in Ann Arbor in the ‘70s.

[Revel]

A major weapons system. Combine it with a satellite mirror and GPS and you can wipe out anything on earth.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “I hear it’s only 20 years away after this.” <<

.
LOL! Yer an effin optimist!

[Fungi]

“500 TW is 1,000 times more power than the United States uses at any instant in time.” So where did all of this energy needed for this reseach come from? Take a guess. The logical conclusion and premise is never (almost always) considered in the original article. This is nonsense.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

500 TW is 1,000 times more power than the United States uses at any instant in time

Wow. Then why do we have power outages? Why are we pursuing solar and wind if we can release that much power? Why aren't we tapping this incredible source?

[Captain Beyond]

bflr

[JRandomFreeper]

It's a matter of units.

500TW is more power than the US uses at any instant.

They load up capacitors and discharge them quickly. It's not 500TW/h.

Power measurements depend on the discharge time.

That's what the author left out. Also why culinary school is better than journalism school.

/johnny

[BreezyDog]

It only lasted 1/5,000,000th of a second or some along that time span

[JRandomFreeper]

Correct. Energy doesn't equal power.

/johnny

[KarlInOhio]

The total laser energy was 1.85 megajoules. That’s a little more than a half kilowatt hour.

[smokingfrog]

Energy doesn't equal usable power.