Posted on 01/15/2005 11:02:49 AM PST by ckilmer
January 12, 2005 03:30 PM US EST
by The Acoustic Fusion Technology Energy Consortium
GRASS VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 2005--
CONSORTIUM FORMED TO STUDY ACOUSTIC FUSION; COULD BE ALTERNATIVE TO OIL, GAS, COAL AND NUCLEAR POWER
The Acoustic Fusion Technology Energy Consortium (AFTEC) has been formed by leading academic and commercial institutions to research and develop acoustic inertial confinement fusion (AICF) and its related science, technologies, and equipment. AFTEC's five founders are (alphabetically): Boston University; Impulse Devices, Inc.; Purdue University; University of Mississippi; and University of Washington Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound.
Dr. Wylene Dunbar, Director of AFTEC, today announced the group saying, "Acoustic fusion has an excellent chance of becoming the alternative to oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy for the world's electricity -- if it is funded appropriately."
"If AICF delivers on its potential, the impact would be enormous. Fusion could produce electricity with a process that yields virtually no pollution--just ordinary helium and heat," Dr. Dunbar observed. "With acoustic fusion, the fuel is essentially water, and the cost to build and operate a plant would be a fraction of other alternative energy facilities. Furthermore, the timetable for acoustic fusion is arguably far shorter than all other paths to fusion."
In AICF, sound waves bombard a liquid such as heavy water, to create tiny void "bubbles" or "cavities" of deuterium a/k/a heavy hydrogen. This produces very high temperatures and densities that, when high enough, fuse the heavy hydrogen into helium. That fusion releases enormous heat that could be used to create steam and drive a turbine to produce electricity.
An emerging field, acoustic inertial confinement fusion can already lay claim to significant progress: A multi-institution team led by Dr. Rusi Taleyarkhan has twice documented fusion reactions taking place in an AICF reactor, with the results of those seminal experiments published in two prestigious, peer-reviewed journals, Science 295, 1868 (2002) and Physical Review E 69, 036109 (2004), and receiving publicity worldwide. Under the direction of its President, Ross Tessien, Impulse Devices has recently made available the first commercial research reactor for AICF.
Scientists leading AFTEC's research are preeminent in the field: Dr. R. Glynn Holt, Associate Professor, Department of Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering, Boston University; Dr. D. Felipe Gaitan, (discoverer of single-bubble sonoluminescence, a phenomenon closely related to acoustic fusion research), Chief Scientific Officer, Impulse Devices, Inc.; Dr. Rusi Taleyarkhan, The Ardent Bement Jr. Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, and part-time Distinguished staff at a National Laboratory; Dr. Henry Bass, Director of the National Center for Physical Acoustics, University of Mississippi, and F.A.P. Barnard Distinguished Professor of Physics & Astronomy; and Dr. Lawrence A. Crum (leading researcher in the field of high intensity focused ultrasound and past president of The Acoustical Society of America) Professor of Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering and Director, Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington.
Members of AFTEC will work as a team to investigate acoustic fusion, Dr. Dunbar noted, and will consult with National Laboratory scientists for independent verification of positive results, as they are achieved.
"All of the scientists involved with this research appreciate that acoustic fusion is a relatively new field and one that has, so far, received little funding support," Dr. Dunbar stated. "Nevertheless, given AICF's potential for creating a limitless, nonpolluting source of sustainable energy, as well as myriad other applications, they also agree that the investigation of acoustic fusion is critically important and deserving of high priority."
Dr. Dunbar received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University and her J.D. from the University of Mississippi.
acoustic cavitation or acoustic fusion would both make for good first tries for jazz fusion band names. but soon I think the guys would realize there were just too many syllables going on there. Good band names are usually no more one or two syllyables like: FinK, PEon,ChiPSet,Toad
Daria Musk Trio - Acoustic Fusion
A soulful acoustic fusion of rock, funk, folk, reggae and jazz. A high energy, groove-based, virtuostic blend of sound. "With Daria Musk Trio it's all about playing live." While currently working in the studio creating their first fully-produced album, The Daria Musk Trio is truly a live performance band. Since their formation they've been on a continuous touring schedule. Captivating audiences everywhere they go, their shows exhibit solid musicianship, exciting stage presence and fresh upbeat songs that range from high energy to soulful lush melodies. Starting out in coffee houses DM3 has now expanded to large and exclusive venues throughout Connecticut and New York City. With a steadily growing fanbase, and radio play stretching from Connecticut Universities to WLIR, they're spreading their sound. They have been welcomed onto the stages of CBGB's, The Baggot Inn, The Knitting Factory, The Triad Theatre, and many more. DM3 was also recently featured at a meeting of The Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
DM3 consists of singer/songwriter/guitarist Daria, acoustic-electric bassist Rich, and fusion drummer J.
website: http://www.dariamusktrio.com
email: info@dariamusktrio.com
LOL! That's cool. Did you have a creative hand in that? I noticed the picture of Bill Gates, as a "young nerd, arrested". Perhaps all our base do belong to him. Apple, notwithstanding.
WildTurkey
Last time I went to CBGB's was two decades ago. At that time the music they covered was all heavy metal hard rock. I got into a drunken brawl out side. They'd seen that sort of thing before. Often in fact. It was expected.
Sounds like times have changed a bit there.
Anchored by the old Grass Valley Group which got sold. There's still a large number of Silicon Refugees up there, telecommuting and doing small start-ups.
no that's been around for awhile. I first saw it a couple months back. likely posted at fr. if you lose the link you can find it by going to google and typing in ...
"all your base are belong to us"
IMO, that's the bottom line here. Somebody wants a grant for something that may or may not work.
Carolyn
It shouldn't be a surprise that nuclear fusion reactions can be be caused this way. In some modern nuclear bombs, the initiator, the device that generates the initial neutrons that begin the chain reaction, uses the energy of the chemical implosion to fuse deuterium at the center of the bomb. The average temperature created by the imploding shock wave is much less than required to sustain a fusion reaction, however. But the bell-shaped temperature distribution guarantees that a few atoms at the higher tail of the curve will have a high enough temerature to fuse and generate a few neutrons while the mass is still critical.
"-- if it is funded appropriately."
IMO, that's the bottom line here. Somebody wants a grant for something that may or may not work.
Carolyn
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some of the best money the feds spend is on basic research--the sort of work work that doesn't have a direct commercial application--within a 2-3 year time frame. which is the outer boundary of most private R&D investment.
federal seed money can be found at the base of most industries today.
Last fall the cold fusion people came back to the DOE with their experimental results again. and again they were rejected--because the results were sufficiently reproduceable. in this case it looks like the results are reproduceable.
5.56mm
It shouldn't be a surprise that nuclear fusion reactions can be be caused this way. In some modern nuclear bombs, the initiator, the device that generates the initial neutrons that begin the chain reaction, uses the energy of the chemical implosion to fuse deuterium at the center of the bomb. The average temperature created by the imploding shock wave is much less than required to sustain a fusion reaction, however. But the bell-shaped temperature distribution guarantees that a few atoms at the higher tail of the curve will have a high enough temerature to fuse and generate a few neutrons while the mass is still critical.
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does this mean that theoretically you wouldn't need to sustain a nuclear reaction to get heat. All you'd need to do would be to continuously accoustically bombard the deuterium?
Would there be net energy released? if so at what kind of ratios?
how would that compare to wood or oil or coal?
If this works i am going to buy myself a blimp and fill it for free....LOL
Not so. Wholly legitimate project; I've been reading locally about Ole Miss's involvement in it.
MM
Right. As long as you get more energy out of the process as you put in, you don't need to have a continuous reaction or a critical mass. A lot proposed fusion and fission processes are pulse fusion processes or subcritical fission processes. The French have proposed a subcritical thorium-uranium reactor that uses a neutron source to sustain the reaction.
Would there be net energy released in acoustic energy scheme? Well, that's the trick, isn't it?
I think it's a waste of time. We have plenty of energy sources. Hydro-power, frozen methane deposits in the sea or nuclear fission could easily supplant oil. The problem is people who want to get control of it by taxing it. If fusion energy were to become a reality, the radical environmentalist would find some reason that it offends the earth gods.
You're thinking of helium-3. Yes, you need to breed it in a reactor or mine the moon. Deuterium can be extracted from water by physical or chemical processes that are relatively cheap. ($28 a pound).
What do they say about commercial viability, if they can get the technique to work?
I think it's a waste of time. We have plenty of energy sources. Hydro-power, frozen methane deposits in the sea or nuclear fission could easily supplant oil. The problem is people who want to get control of it by taxing it. If fusion energy were to become a reality, the radical environmentalist would find some reason that it offends the earth gods.
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well what people are thinking is ...can you do fusion on the cheap. Can you set a reactor outside beside the port-a-pot? these seem to be reasonable questions.
The whole deal these days with energy is getting stuff to work and scale up at or below the cost structure of oil. Hydro is tapped out. extracting frozen methane is still too expensive--as is solar. Windmill generated electricity is coming close in terms of price but at best could do under 10% of the national needs and then a lot of land would need to be covered by the whirly birds. the left generally hates the carbon cycle. the right is saying the limits for oil expansion are coming within the next couple years--just as demand is scaling up. this means we've seen only the first spike in oil. imho its a very urgent biz to get cheap new scalable energy resources. and all avenues need to be tried.
the nuclear waste from this kind of process seems minimal
Good movie. Slight correction though. It was the sound made while he was machining a piece of metal on his lathe, he just used the keyboard to record it.
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