Posted on 07/11/2011 10:29:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
DEBATE about America’s energy supply is heating up: gas prices are rising, ethanol is under attack and nuclear power continues to struggle in the shadow of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
But an abundant, safe and clean energy source once thought to be the stuff of science fiction is closer than many realize: nuclear fusion. Making it a reality, however, will take significant investment from the government at a time when spending on scientific research is under threat.
Harnessing nuclear fusion, the energy that powers the sun and the stars, has been a goal of physicists worldwide since the 1950s. It is essentially inexhaustible and it can be created using hydrogen isotopes — chemical cousins of hydrogen, like deuterium — that can readily be extracted from seawater.
Fusion energy is created by fusing two atomic nuclei, in the process converting mass to energy, which appears as heat. The heat, as in conventional nuclear fission reactors, turns water into steam, which drives turbines to generate electricity, or is used to produce fuels for transportation or other uses.
Fusion energy generates zero greenhouse gases. It offers no chance of a catastrophic accident. It can be available to all nations, relying only on the Earth’s oceans. When commercialized, it will transform the world’s energy supply.
There’s a catch. The development of fusion energy is one of the most difficult science and engineering challenges ever undertaken. Among other challenges, it requires production and confinement of a hot gas — a plasma — with a temperature around 100 million degrees Celsius....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This has been 25 years away for the last 50 years.
Seriously, I’ve always wondered if there wasn’t some engineering solution to confinement that just hasn’t occurred to anybody yet, and will be incredibly obvious once invented.
Farnsworth’s designs seem tantalizingly close, and people have tried to prove for years that they CAN’T be made to work efficiently, and yet making them work with net positive energy still can’t be done.
As my father once said, God Rest His Soul, “if Bull Sh^t was energy, Washington, DC would light up the world.”
More unicorns and pixie dust energy ideas that can only be accomplished through Big Gov't spending. These expensive energy ideas are really paying off in Spain, with 20% unemployment and a maxed out credit card.
The absolute stupidest thing one can believe is that we’ll never get fusion to work as a practical souce of energy.
The second stupidest thing one can believe is what comes out of a scientist’s mouth when they’re looking for new (or protecting existing) grant money.
bflr
I went to the Slimes site and read the entire article just to confirm. Sure enough, there is no explanation for this statement:
“Making it a reality, however, will take significant investment from the government...”
The government didn’t fund Henry Ford or the Wright Brothers, but somehow Fusion will never happen without government investment ? One distinguishing mark of a liberal is their unquestioning belief that nothing can be accomplished without government funding.
You want unlimited energy? It’s called the ionosphere. Tesla proved it. When all the oil and natural gas is depleted we’ll magically find it. (Technically, I don’t think we’ll make it that long).
There just always has to be a catch, doesn't there? ;-)
There are a lot of catches.
Fusion is turning out to be a complicated, finicky, expensive, radioactive, Rube Goldberg type of solution.
the technology simply is not there. While I think that there is merit in research, blowing the bank on it is a fool's errand. It may lead to better understanding, but I cannot see it powering an illegal incandescent light bulb ever.
You want unlimited energy? It’s called the ionosphere. Tesla proved it. When all the oil and natural gas is depleted we’ll magically find it
Always gotta love the Tesla conspiracy theorists, especially those that still believe in wireless electric power distribution. You're in the HAARP conspiracy theory territory once you go there . . .
Where does lightning come from you effing idiot?
Nice pitch for funding by the “scientist” in charge of the Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton U. How come he didn’t mention that to use “seawater” as fuel, you have to use very expensive electrolysis to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen? And oh yeah, plasma is not gas since at energies that high, the subatomic particles are separated from each other to a large degree. And the kind of “emissions” they’re talking about are of course “carbon” . . . fusion does indeed emit dangerous high-energy EM waves that need to be contained.
I was a twenty six year-old graduate student. That was thirty years ago...
LOL, that's an even better one. Attak de heretick! him kwestion de guru! How come all lightning forms between cloud and ground, and this being but a few miles above the planet's surface while the D-layer of the ionosphere is 37 miles above? (Airliners fly an average of 6½ miles above when cruising.) Of course, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming you've got a point that makes sense . . . kan I go to ur universitee wer u got ur degreey in fizziks?
Where does lightning come from you effing idiot?
I’ll be fair, lord knows you need it. All lightning is cloud cover or below? All lightning needs cloud cover? If not where does it come from? I don’t need a physics degree that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. I just listen to people that are smarter than me and you.
Alas. A product of liberal society . . . how is it you came here?
I’ll be fair, lord knows you need it. All lightning is cloud cover or below? All lightning needs cloud cover? If not where does it come from? I don’t need a physics degree that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. I just listen to people that are smarter than me and you
So lightning out of a clear blue sky never happens, just a wives tale. And the best minds are still trying to figure lightning out. You’ve convinced me, guru.
Comes from seawater? Forget it, this libs will never accept it. “No fusion” concerts will break out and Al Gore will point out how dangerously low the sea level is dropping by using tides as an example like he uses photos of winter compared to summer to point out global warm.....oh wait, excuse me....climate change.
"Bolts from the blue" are cloud-to-ground lightning strikes that come from nearby thunderstorms. No storm, no lightning. Maximum distance away is generally 25 miles. Anyone could have looked that up on the information superhighway.
So lightning out of a clear blue sky never happens, just a wives tale
Indeed they are. Causes are still as mysterious as that of gravity.
And the best minds are still trying to figure lightning out
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