Laser Could Rival Energy From Sun's Center

I was browsing the internet for news and I just found an interesting news in abc.com. Heres the link..

abcnews.go.com...

Well then if all this is true how in the world can we hold a 180 million degrees Farenheit energy. But I should say if this is succesful and if we can harness the energy. It would solve our energy crisis in thw world. (NO POLLUTION)

I'm not very good with this type of stuff, but I don't exaclty get how they are powering these lasers....if they are doing what they say, for that brief period it will release 1,000 times the power of the whole U.S., but what is powering this brief power explosion. It seems to me like you'd need the entire power of the United States for something like that.

Puzzled.

Ok, I've tried twice to view the page, but I'm using an old version of IE and it keeps killing my computer, so would you mind summarizing the basic points for me, either here or u2u? I'm emotionally invested now.

I'm a bit skeptical just given the title.

They store that much energy in capacitors and release it very fast. Its like filling a huge bucket of water with a tiny trickle, then popping the bottom out real fast.

Oh, I see. So, they are trying to store this energy over time, and then release it in a massive wave, in an attempt to create more energy than was released in the wave?

Wait a minute so we have to capture a lopt of energy to relese more enegy right? On that case will that solve our Energy Crisis.

This is a type of fusion experiment. They are amplifying the light then focusing the 180 million degree F beam and intense pressure to fuse a BB sized Hydrogen fuel pellet. It's a neat experiment and could give us some clues to the Fusion puzzle.


[edit on 22-5-2005 by sardion2000]

Yeah, this technology is a fantastic source of energy.

The laser pulse lasts for a trillionth of a second (10^-12 seconds, or a picosecond). Most appliances I know need to run for just a bit longer than that.

Pulsed lasers take the energy from a continuous source (aka cw) and force the energy to come out in short pulses. A 1 W cw laser can easily be made to produce kW or greater pulses if the pulse duration is only a nanosecond or less.

BTW, the laser technology used at LLNL is probably less than 5% wall-plug efficient.

This is the type of structure that is needed for FTL / Jump travel.
Store it up, then release in bursts.

Way far from that right now, but it would be cool

Huh you can't accelorate an object past the speed of light...with light Think about that one for a bit

But is it this the most realistic/powerful Energy Source? IF so why aren't we investing more money into the idea. Does it realese pollution of some sort maybe radioactive elements. (Pardon my intelligence, I don't know alot of stuff)

[edit on 22-5-2005 by DaVirus]

Fusion releases some radiation but it can be dealt with much more easily then Fission. The waste Fusion produces is also much better then fission as it only stays radioactive for a couple of decades versus hundreds years for Fission waste and it's also theoretically possible to eliminate waste alltogether in a Fusion reactor. This idea is very wild, but if we get more energy then we put into it to fuse the Hydrogen then it would be well worth it.

What other ways are there to initiate a controlled fusion reaction?

I know that in hydrogen bomb they initiate the reaction by fission, but then the reaction is uncontrolled.

Now, I am off to calculate the energy required to initiate the fusion reaction. For too long been I have been out of touch with physics

I know that in hydrogen bomb they initiate the reaction by fission, but then the reaction is uncontrolled.

No H-Bombs have nothing to do with fission, it's pure uncontrolled Fusion there.

Yes there are different ways to control Fusion reactions, they require extensive magnetic shield though. Check out ITER.

www.iter.org...

www.boeing.com...

Thanks for the links sardion2000

Originally posted by sardion2000

No H-Bombs have nothing to do with fission, it's pure uncontrolled Fusion there.

I disagree...In many cases, probably all, the initial reaction in a H-bomb is fission (by a mini atomic bomb). This creates enough energy for the fusion reaction to start. There is no other way you can provide enough energy in the small space occupied (compared to labs) by a H-bomb to initiate a fusion reaction.

Quake's right, they "usually" use a mini fission reaction to start the thing off. This site says it perfectly - "Now, if you want to make a fusion bomb, you use the gamma and X rays from a fission bomb as the trigger"

I recall vaguely reading somewhere about using dynamite to start it, but my google search seems to refute my memory. I trust google.

I think I remember hearing about this a while back. From my understanding they plan to use a whole bunch of lasers which all converge on one point and will initiate a nuclear reaction right? My question is how do they control the reaction once it has started? Since they are using lasers and not radioactive material I dont think they can raise/lower fuel rods etc...

Could they potenially start a new Sun on earth

Good poing WarpBoost.
What if the energy becomes berserk and it suddenly gets uncontrollably violent. How are we suppose to contain/destroy the energy.