Cold fusion ‘breakthrough’ heralds clean nuclear power

The Sunday Times (UK) ^ | March 03, 2002 | Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

[MarkL]

I am in my basement la-BOR-a-tory (Brittish pronounciation) working on the very same thing. I'll keep you advised.

And I'll finish up my cold fusion reactor, shortly after I perfect my "Infinite Improbability Drive," which, interestingly enough, seems to be required to get the cold fusion reactor to work...

Mark

[gcruse]

Yes. The high priests of science crucified them for not strictly obeying the rules. Science played second fiddle to the rules.  The pharisees of science worship a cruel and jealous god, indeed.

You'll find that repeatability and predictability
are characteristics that distinguish science from
the I'll-believe-anything-you-tell-me-if-you-
say-Jesus-said-it standard of proof that passes
for you and your ilk, KC.

[RadioAstronomer]

"Infinite Improbability Drive,"

So where did you find enough unobtanium required to fuel it? :)

[PatrickHenry]

... after I perfect my "Infinite Improbability Drive" ...

I have one of those things lying around my la-BOR-a-tory, somewhere. Or I did have. Or will have. (Durned time machine, always mixing me up!)

[AndrewC]

Hmmm-type placemarker

[Graewoulf]

Thanks for the link to the Sonoluminescence article. FYI: As I read the article, it says 100,000 Kelvin, or ten to the fifth Kelvin, or 10^5 Kelvin, and NOT 105 Kelvin. Also, similar correction comment for 10^7 bar.

[Gordian Blade]

I have more information about the Z Machine that you might be interested in, quoting from a recent email to me:

Gerry Yonas passed along your inquiry re: Z. We are continuing to make progress. Most recently, we completed the project to move the Beamlet laser from LLNL (Beamlet was the prototype laser for the national ignition facility). We were successful in reconstructing the laser next to Z and then synchronizing it within 3 ns to the peak radiation output from Z. We then were able, for the first time, to image imploding capsules with a backlighter. We have done some nice symmetry measurements of imploding capsules. We also have been working to refurbish the facility. This year, Congress supplied $10M (the first installment in what we hope to be a $60M total) to begin the refurbishment. When completed, we should have 26 MA into a z pinch (18 MA today) and 350 TW of x-ray power with 2.7 MJ of x-ray energy (200 TW and 1.8 MJ today). This will provide a significant improvement in precision, capacity and capability.

Finally, we are also using the Z facility to generate very high magnetic fields for materials studies. We have achieved 2 Mbar isentropic compression in Al and have launched flyer plates to greater than 26 km/s velocities. All in all a very versatile and useful machine.

Hope this answers your questions. We have a Web site http://www.sandia.gov/pulspowr/PPT.html that is a bit out of date but over the next few months we hope to bring it up to snuff.

Regards,
Jeff Quintenz

[patriciaruth]

Thanks for the ping!

[Billy_bob_bob]

The Z machine. Haven't heard that name in a while. Sounds like good things are going on there.

[RadioAstronomer]

Cool! Thanks for the post!

[lavaroise]

No fusion is cold. Cold fusion is a misnomer for it is a hot fusion created in ambient temperature vessels.