Posted on 10/08/2013 6:23:05 AM PDT by Red Badger
Researchers at a US lab have passed a crucial milestone on the way to their ultimate goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion.
Harnessing fusion - the process that powers the Sun - could provide an unlimited and cheap source of energy.
But to be viable, fusion power plants would have to produce more energy than they consume, which has proven elusive.
Now, a breakthrough by scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) could boost hopes of scaling up fusion.
NIF, based at Livermore in California, uses 192 beams from the world's most powerful laser to heat and compress a small pellet of hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion reactions take place.
The BBC understands that during an experiment in late September, the amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel - the first time this had been achieved at any fusion facility in the world.
This is a step short of the lab's stated goal of "ignition", where nuclear fusion generates as much energy as the lasers supply. This is because known "inefficiencies" in different parts of the system mean not all the energy supplied through the laser is delivered to the fuel.
But the latest achievement has been described as the single most meaningful step for fusion in recent years, and demonstrates NIF is well on its way towards the coveted target of ignition and self-sustaining fusion.
For half a century, researchers have strived for controlled nuclear fusion and been disappointed. It was hoped that NIF would provide the breakthrough fusion research needed.
In 2009, NIF officials announced an aim to demonstrate nuclear fusion producing net energy by 30 September 2012. But unexpected technical problems ensured the deadline came and went;
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Amen that thought - wonderful entertainment! I like the one who is so threatened by “scary girls with icky cooties” that it thinks calling posters female is an insult - this stuff is classic!
Which is why the notion of "patenting" was developed.
The Kings (this was during feudalism/guild days) saw that too much technology was being lost if a guild master died before passing all the trade secret info along to his journeymen. So they issued "letters patent" giving the technology developer a monopoly on selling the (whatever) in the kingdom, PROVIDED they documented the discoveries/inventions.
I guess I hurt someone’s feelings. I wonder what would happen if I didn’t reply to the fellas? I’ll try that for a while.
Hah hah hah! That’s wonderful! After 2 years of abuse from ignorant anti-science freepers, yes, your silence would be welcome. But don’t worry about our hurt wittle feewings. Oh, that’s just precious.
Maybe the two of you could consider adding some kind of substance to the debate rather than ping-pong trolling about straw arguments... Have you considered, even for a moment, reading the articles that Warthog suggests?
wonderful entertainment!
***Standard justification of the entertainment troll. We saw a lot of that on Certifigate threads. And when DarwinCentral and WideAwake got started as spinoff websites from FR, the participants directly admitted to such behavior so they could piss off conservatives.
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