Massive electric current tested in US

Aljazeera

[Grendel9]

Thursday 28 July 2005, 12:01 Makka Time, 9:01 GMT

The test was part of an operation to test US nuclear capability

Scientists at the Nevada Test Site have said they generated a current equal to roughly four times all the electrical power on Earth.

The current, which created pressures in materials millions of times greater than normal, was part of an experiment to better understand nuclear weapons.

The experiment was conducted on Wednesday at the test site's Atlas Pulsed Power Facility by scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, along with staff from the test site and contractor Bechtel Nevada.

19 million amps

During the few millionths of a second that it operated, the 650-ton Atlas pulsed-power generator discharged nearly 19 million amps of current through an aluminum cylindrical shell about the size of a tuna can, the National Nuclear Security Administration said.

Atlas, which works as a giant power multiplier, was designed as part of an Energy Department programme to determine the readiness of the nation's nuclear stockpile without underground testing.

It was built at Los Alamos and recently moved to the Nevada Test Site, a proving ground just north of Las Vegas

[birg]

They meant four times the power generated in "regular" power systems on Earth.. excluding their brief experiment which does not count as part of our normal power supply system.

[HereInTheHeartland]

"Scientists at the Nevada Test Site have said they generated a current equal to roughly four times all the electrical power on Earth."

How did they generate 4 times more current than actually exists?
Editor wanted on line 1.

[Right Wing Assault]

I would love to see what happened to the 'tuna can'. Usually such currents change the shape of the 'wire'.

See http://www.texspec.com/crushed_coin.htm for example.

The guy makes quarters smaller than a dime and sells them for nine bucks. Is that deflation or inflation?

[Willie Green]

discharged nearly 19 million amps of current through an aluminum cylindrical shell about the size of a tuna can,

I hope that no dolphins were injured in this test.

[Onelifetogive]

Perhaps the assumed a "standard" voltage and based their comment on the current voltage product.

That's possible. Another possibility: They are idiots!

[BenLurkin]

I dunno but I don't want SCE complaining about how much juice my kids are using in the A/C.

[E=MC²]

Oops...I'm as bad as the media...the peak "demand" reported was something like 9,000 megawatt hours, which must have been for the entire Tampa Bay region.

[BipolarBob]

Being as to how the average power plant is probably 500mw/hr and their unit auxillary usage is 20+/mw/hr somebody is off a few decimals.

[Final Authority]

I was thinking the same thing. I want to know the voltage drop.

BTW, in the good old days when the USA actually developed new technology and used experiments to perfect it rather than computer simulations, I worked with a group who tested reentry materials, primarily for the MX missile system reentry vehicle but also the space shuttle leading edge surfaces. We used to fire a 10 mega Watt arc gun at the target. It was an air plasma jet fired into a supersonic evacuation stream. The target was placed in the path, instrumented with calorimeters and we set up high speed cameras to record data.

The noise, the shock wave, the plasma jet was real cool, even if it only lasted for about five seconds at a time. The problem was twofold, generating a reservoir of low pressure tanks (giant vacuum system) large enough to maintain a supersonic evacuation stream with a two foot opening, and storing enough power to maintain a 10 mega Watt power delivery. There were several thousand deep cycle batteries cabled together in both series and parallel to supply the power with the cables coming out of the buss being internally water cooled. They were like fire hoses.

Facilities like that are few and far between these days.

[E=MC²]

Please see post 27 :-)

[Calpernia]

ping

[BipolarBob]

see timestamp of #27 and #28

[Right Wing Assault]

energy, power, voltage, current

For a reporter, those are synonyms. Varying terms to use at random when writing articles about 'electricity'. These are the kind of people who, when you tell them you are in the sciences, say, "Oh, I always hated that stuff."

[MinuteGal]

Hook all that juice up to the broken Old Sparky in Florida.

They can call the rejuvenated chair "Son of Sparky".

Leni

[GOPJ]

We're testing to get ready for Mutually Assured Destruction. Aljazeera's paying attention.

[Major_Risktaker]

Sound like you had a great time.

[scars]

That "crushed quarter" looks soooo fake. Why the disparate shrinkage of the head and the lettering? OTOH, why aren't we FReepers happy about something that could make our electric bills a fraction of what they are?????

[E=MC²]

Can't get any closer than that!

[Echo Talon]

Isn't defacing US Currency against the law?
And he is profiting from this? Hmmmm Someone call the Treasury Secretary.

[AdamSelene235]

Cute, but no substitute for regular underground testing.

I assume they are comparing the peak power to the average power used in the world....Which is like comparing the peak power of your hammer to the average power of your neighborhood grid....Meaningless.