Giant laser experiment powers up (Hyrdrogen Fusion)

Giant laser experiment powers up (Hyrdrogen Fusion)

news.bbc.co.uk

The US National Ignition Facility is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion, a process that could offer abundant clean energy.

The lab will kick-start the reaction by focusing 192 giant laser beams on a tiny pellet of hydrogen fuel.

To work, it must show that more energy can be extracted from the process than is required to initiate it..

(visit the link for the full news article)

Later in the article it goes on to explain that this reaction is hoped to produce 10 to 100 times more energy than is put into starting the reaction. This net energy gain is the end of our dependence on fossil fuels isn't it?



Comment: I searched and found 1 or 2 threads on this lab but not about how the lab has finished construction.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Num1Skeptic


I seen something about this on the news today looks very promising, 1 step closer to the ultimate super weapon, screw the nukes lets build a Death star !

all joking aside supposedly it is very promising and we could see the benefits by 2010 if it all works, the down side is that it would cause problems with other sources of energy, this would basically render all other energy sources useless putting allot of people out of work. .


[edit on 4/1/2009 by Verd_Vhett]

reply to post by Verd_Vhett


It would basically make obsolete all other energy sources. Which would eliminate all jobs related to those such as mining and geologists to find the oil and coal. However it would of course create jobs at the new power plants but im sure it would require less people to run them however someone has to build all the thousands of new plants we would need.

Also unlimited basically free energy is worth alot more than a few lost jobs imo.

reply to post by Num1Skeptic


Oil and coal have other uses besides being burnt for fuel, there still would be a demand. For starters, I doubt we'll see fusion powered cars, planes or ships any time soon and they still need fuel. Then there is plastics, which are derived from oil and steel production, which requires coke.

If anything, fusion power would liberate western economies from the chains of foreign energy dependancy and provide us with limitless, cheap energy to build and produce stuff with.

reply to post by stumason


Perhaps it might also represent a new way to monopolize energy, making after the initial investment, an endless supply of 100 % profit revenue flow.

I guess it depends on who gets there first....

reply to post by stumason


All those demands for petroleum are very important but somewhere in my environmental sci class I remember reading that out of all the petroleum we the US uses 10% of it is not used for fuel.

And as for cars with "unlimited" cheap energy electric cars would have be extremely economical, true hybrids like the volt (if it is ever built) would benefit greatly from this cheap electricity. The application of this technology if it works would be very profound. The US and every other country would no longer need to import vast quantities of fossil fuels and since this technology is almost completely funded by the US we would be the first to benefit from it.

Excuse me, but the reason we went to high technology is because it is a force multiplier. You increase production, bringing up the standard of living for all. Or so the theory goes.

Technology does not unemploy people. A limitless source of energy does not unemploy people, not even if it is completely free and completely self sustaining. It empowers people. It provides people with a the ability to distribute more of everything to everyone.

Failure to achieve those goals is not the fault of the power source, don't blame the electricity when you fail to feed your children!

People love to protect their little piles of greed hoarded gold at the expense of everyone around them. Blame the greed, it is the reason we do not all live better lives already with the advances of the the last century.

Change is necessary if we are to survive on this planet. Learn to swim or go under. When the flood comes, if anyone is still alive, it will be those who gave up their islands who survive.

reply to post by Num1Skeptic


Not entirely true. The US has built this experimental reactor, true. But in Europe we ae currently designing and building the next generation. NIF can only ignite one fuel pellet every few hours, obviously not anywhere near enough to generate a sustained power output.

The next phase is to build one that ignites several fuel pellets a second to produce a constant supply of power. This reactor will be in Europe and is expected to be finished by 2020. It is a truely global effort, not the US going it alone.

So, what does this mean for our real tech level? If we assume things like this are released years after the discovery is made.

I know, a tad "conspiratorial," but I prefer to think that the government is far beyond its alleged current tech level. Either that or I feel scared.

reply to post by Num1Skeptic


From the same article in the OP .BBC News

At approximately the same time, scientists will also get their hands on another mammoth fusion experiment, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter), currently being built in Cadarache, France.

Iter will attempt to initiate fusion using a different method, known as magnetic confinement, in which a super-heated volume of gas is constrained by magnetic fields in a doughnut-shaped vessel known as a tokamak.

Plasma in the Tore Supra Tokamak, France. Plasma temperature 10^8 K (100 million kelvin), plasma density 1 bar.


If anyone is interested in a short video about it . Link here.