Posted on 02/12/2014 12:55:31 PM PST by BenLurkin
In each trial, 192 laser beams briefly fired into a half-inch-long gold cylinder. The cylinder held a tiny ball that contained the fuel, which was a mix of two kinds of hydrogen, called deuterium and tritium. The energy from the lasers kicked off a process that compressed the ball by an amount akin to squeezing a basketball down to the size of a pea, said Debbie Callahan, an author of the paper.
That created the extremely high pressure and temperatures needed to get the hydrogen atoms to fuse. It was all over in the blink of an eye, with the reaction confined to a space smaller than the width of a human hair.
Nuclear fusion would be worthwhile only if it produces more energy than it uses, and the results were far from that. The hydrogen fuel did emit more energy than it absorbed from the lasers, an experimental goal. But the fuel took in only about 1 percent of all the energy produced by the lasers. So the apparatus is still far short of producing more energy than it requires to operate.
Another key finding was evidence that energy created by the fusion reaction was going back into the remaining fuel, a "bootstrapping" process that is key to boosting the energy output.
...
The sign of bootstrapping is "really a wonderful result," said fusion expert Robert McCrory of the University of Rochester, who was not involved in the research. "There's a lot more that needs to be done" to reach the point where the reaction produces more energy than the lasers deliver, but "this was absolutely necessary."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This is really interesting and its real. Granted its not going to lead to fusion reactors tomorrow but its progress.
The story I just read.
Nuclear fusion hits energy milestone
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nuclear-fusion-hits-energy-milestone-1.2534140
Better work is being done at Sandia.
“Fusion power would avoid the need for long-term storage of radioactive waste. And unlike fossil fuels like coal, it would not produce greenhouse gases that cause global warming.”
BUT!
It DOES PRODUCE ENERGY, which is what the envirowhackos and the Population Control crowd REALLY HATE.
The “pollution” and “warming” memes are just scare tactics, to hide their true agenda.
Don’t buy it...kind of like windmills...you need grease (and lots of it) to lubricate the bearings. How much will it cost to create viable fusion reactors and maintain them? Likely more that it’s worth.
I’ll start getting excited once they do this without using tritium.
Most of the yield comes from D + T reaction -> 17MeV
D + D requires much higher temps and reaction -> 4Mev
Tritium requires neutron irradiation to create before fusion reaction.
D + D works with sea water extraction but yield is much lower.
And...oh yeah...the envirowhackjobs will be trying to shut it down at every turn!
Any way we could scale that sucker up a bit and put Boehner in there?
He’s already many times denser than the center of the sun.
The Z-Machine is kind of cool!
A Fusion pulse generator would work if they could get pulse cycles short enough.
True enough but its a step forward.
“Hes already many times denser than the center of the sun.”
Heh!
No big deal. Kevmo has an order in for his home cold fusion reactor to be delivered early this year.
Oh I agree, Fusion is the future.
Its just REALLY hard to keep running.
Nature creates fusion reactors in abundance but nature has an abundance of material to work with.
Ping.
"Well the man tried to tell me...that fusion was safe...but the big corporations laid the working man to waste.."
Big fusion causes global warming!
We need big Ice Cream.
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