Darpa's Handheld Nuclear Fusion Reactor

Darpa's Handheld Nuclear Fusion Reactor

www.wired.com

The project, known as the “Chip-Scale High Energy Atomic Beams” program, is an effort aimed at working on the core technologies behind a tiny particle accelerator, capable of firing subatomic particles at incredible speeds. It’s part of a larger Darpa plan to reduce all sorts of devices to microchip-scale — including cryogenic coolers , video cameras and multi-purpose sensors. All of the projects are ambitious (this is Darpa, after all). But this had to be the most ambitious of the lot.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Darpa is planning on achieving controlled nuclear fusion in a micro-chip, but that's not all. They are planning on working on other projects to make all sorts of portable devices to a microchip scale.

Imagine portable laser/aka ray guns, being able to power your whole city, including hospitals with one of these chips etc.

The "Chip-Scale High Energy Atomic Beams project" had a budget of 3 million dollars in comparision to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) with a $13 Billion dollar budget, a much longer timescale.

The news is that this year, the "Chip-Scale High Energy Atomic Beams project" is gone, and noone seems to know what happened to it according to the article.

Is it possible that they made a breakthrought and don't want to make it public but rather to keep it for black budget military projects?

According to the article itself.

No further information is available. A few months ago, a Darpa media contact told Danger Room: “At the point we’re way too early in programmatics to have anything to talk about” — and promised to get in touch as soon as there was anything to discuss. Later, the budget for fiscal year 2010 came out; Chip-Scale High Energy Atomic Beams are gone. Where did the project go? No one at the agency seems to know. “I’m afraid that if the program’s not in the budget request then we’re not pursuing it anymore and are therefore not tracking that activity any longer — we also don’t keep any information on things we’re doing,” a Darpa rep told me.

So it is possible that they could not make any progress and abandoned the project, but this is the part that got me confused that a Darpa representative stated.

“I’m afraid that if the program’s not in the budget request then we’re not pursuing it anymore and are therefore not tracking that activity any longer — we also don’t keep any information on things we’re doing,”

I will try to find some more and add the info if i find it.

www.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 7-7-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

That was fast. Found the following.

NOTE: there does not seem to be follow up funding in 2010. However, the 2009 funded work is probably not finished yet. It is not clear what is the result of the work.

The 50 page PDF of DARPA spending plans has some other interesting projects in the 2009 budget and the 471 page pdf 2010 budget.

The Low Power Micro Cryogenic Coolers program will attain superior performance in micro-scale devices (e.g. Low Noise Amplifier (LNA’s) IR detectors, RF front-ends, superconducting circuits) by cooling selected portions to cryogenic temperatures. The key approach in this program that should allow orders of magnitude power savings is to selectively cool only the needed volume/device via MEMS-enabled isolation technologies. Such an approach will benefit a large number of applications where performance is determined predominately by only a few devices in a system, e.g., communications where the front-end filter and LNA often set the noise figure; and sensors, where the transducer and input transistor in the sense amplifier often set the resolution. MEMS technology will also be instrumental for achieving micro-scale mechanical pumps, valves, heat exchangers, and compressors, all needed to realize a complete cryogenic refrigeration system on a chip. Transition of this technology is anticipated through industry, who will incorporate elements of the technology in current and future weapon system designs.
(U) Program Plans:
FY 2007 Accomplishments:
− Demonstrated thermal isolation of >10,000 kilowatt (K/W) in a silicon micromachining process.
− Demonstrated on-chip cooling to 77 kelvin (K) using a photonic fiber heat exchanger.
− Demonstrated new localized on-chip cooler approaches using integrated thermoelectric coolers and photonic heat exchangers.
FY 2008 Plans:
− Demonstrate micro-scale coolers capable of providing the needed cryogenic temperature while still fitting into a miniature size, with
sufficient efficiency for low power operation.
− Demonstrate heat exchangers, Joule-Thompson plugs, valves, pumps, all needed for cryo-cooler implementation.
FY 2009 Plans:
− Integrate micro cooler components together with sufficiently isolated devices to-be-cooled to yield a single chip system consuming very little power.

nextbigfuture.com...

You can keep scrolling down on the link above to find thedifferent programs they are working on and which are unclassified.

Here is a link to the 50 page PDF DARPA spending plan.
www.dtic.mil...



[edit on 7-7-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

Found the following on the Dvice website, which happens to agree to a point what what I am thinking is happening.

If Pentagon whiz kid researchers at DARPA have anything to do with it, handheld fusion reactors could be more than just the stuff of science fiction. Controlling a fusion reaction, the same energy source that powers the sun, is a longtime dream of ambitious scientists. Fusion holds the key to nearly limitless energy.

Someone at DARPA must think a handheld fusion device is possible, because DARPA indicates that its Chip-Scale High Energy Atomic Beams could lead to "handheld power sources." Only problem is, the project doesn't appear in the 2010 budget, but that doesn't necessarily mean the researchers have given up on the idea.

There's little info about this mind-blowing project, but it certainly changes our assumptions about nuclear fusion. We were thinking you'd need a gigantic facility, lots of high-powered lasers, and zillions of dollars to control a fusion reaction. To hold this sort of thing in your hand? The fact that scientists are even talking about this possibility, and pursuing it with multimillion-dollar budgets, is astonishing.

dvice.com...

Well, it's DARPA. They have a bunch of crazy ideas most of which get abandoned.

Although Helium 3 would be perfect for a hand held fusion device. Something tells me that they are still working on it, but other technologies haven't become advanced enough for it to become reality. So once funding runs out they will abandon it and come back to it later on down the road.

If you believe in 'chip scaled fusion generators' then you may also be interested in getting in right on the ground floor with me and my latest development - to the naked eye they look like dried up Heinz baked beans, but no, they are actually magical, you rub a little water into them and a genie appears and does the house work for you.

Get on board now - all donations accepted via paypal.

Hand held fusion? They can't even run the tocomac for more than a few seconds cos the power output is so high!

Thats cloud coo co land my friend.

Originally posted by Now_Then
.................
Thats cloud coo co land my friend.

I didn't know that coo coo land had a $30 million budget, that the government asked DARPA to research.

Oh well, you learn something new everyday heh?

[edit on 7-7-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

reply to post by Now_Then


agreed. This will never be realized, as we cant even do it correctly on a much larger scale.

Though, im sure the effort will yield results that would be useful in one field or another.

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


man... you really cant make a thread, and have anyone try and dispute your claim(im a rather friendly way, i might add) without being a total @ss about it.

why not, instead of being an insulting jerk to him, try and reply to his completely warranted opinion with some sort of argument?

hes right, you know. The day we can successfully harness the power of fusion on a larger scale will be the day that we can start trying to shrink it down to the micro-level with some positive results.

Just because the government invested 30million in this DARPA project does'nt even mean thats where the moneys going. Just because they say on paper that they have a goal doesn't mean their sticking to it.

thats how this twisted world works

reply to post by Kevin_X2


Ah, I see, so he makes a joke at my expense and it's fine, but if I return the joke and make one at his expense it is not fine?...

You know respect goes both ways right? not just how people like you actually think it should only be one way.

I also didn't know that calling this thread "coo co land" and making similar jokes was "a perfectly warranted question"....

Have you ever heard of black op projects? If something like this is feseable, which could very well be, the military/government wouldn't want this in the public, and instead all research into this technology would be classified, which could very well be the reason why they don't have it anymore under the "unclassified" projects section...

BTW, of course at least the first parts of the projects might not involve a complete portable fusion device, but any type of technical information into this would become classified.

There is something called "technology" in which some jerks not that long ago were making fun of such ideas, being total @sses about it.

Let me actually show you some other ideas by DARPA, which are completely possible, but some people would just have made fun of these ideas not too long ago, and even today.

The Pentagon’s premiere research shop is working to shrink all kinds of devices — from cryogenic coolers to vacuum pumps to radar to infra-red video cameras — down to the size of a chip. If it works, it could mean whole new classes of weapons and sensors for the American military — and new gadgets for the rest of us.

In yesterday’s Guardian, I described some of Darpa’s remarkable programs to reduce all sorts of devices to microchip scale. The idea is to produce, eventually, a new generation of "matchbook-size, highly integrated device and micro system architectures" including "low-power, small-volume, lightweight, microsensors, microrobots and microcommunication systems."

For the last several years, research circles have been buzzing, with talk of "lab-on-a-chip" sensors. These small devices used to detect and identify bacteria, viruses and other items of interest; as the name suggests, they are constructed on a micro-scale, so they can work with tiny amounts of material and (because distances and heat capacities are small) produce extremely fast results. Turns out, many of the developments in the itty-bitty lab world can be traced back to Darpa. In fact, one of the agency’s five divisions devoted to nothing but these microtechnologies.

www.wired.com...


You want a list of different technologies in the past but there were many "jerk @sses making fun of them even thou these inventions and ideas became reality?

Let's see, mankind travelling to the Moon, the cellular phone, microwave ovens, flat screen tvs, completely renewable power sources which I happen to have two models each has internal batteries that will charge 600 watts and which recharge just by doing exercises, and I also combine those with two 1,500 watts batteries which I can use to run every electronics in my home, as well as have lights meanwhile the rest of my city is in the dark during blackouts.

Let's continue, handheld phones that have the processing capacity and are computers, and which you can even use to get online, and do anything and everything you can do with a regular PC.

You do know that at one time three decades ago or so it was thought that the smaller computers possible were the size of a building? Of course, there is also the fact that such an invention would not cause the problems of other inventions such as anything even closely resembling a portable handheld fusion device, which despite the claims of some it is very possible. Just because it hasn't been invented yet, or at least the public doesn't know about doesn't make it impossible.

I wonder what you would actually think about other inventions which "real scientists" have come up with and which other members and myself have posted about in these forums.

I actually graduated in computers, and electronics engineering, top of my class with honors, and some of the inventions my class, and other classes similar to my own were coming up with were not even out in the market that long ago.

I can only imagine what other ideas graduate students, and even students have come up with, or are coming up with.

You would be amazed to actually even know some of the inventions people with knowledge, understanding, and a IT IS POSSIBLE attittute can come up with.

I posted this thread because there is a very real possibility this technology has been taken from the public view and it is now in the realm of classified projects, which the public does not know about.




[edit on 8-7-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

SNIP...“I’m afraid that if the program’s not in the budget request then we’re not pursuing it anymore and are therefore not tracking that activity any longer...

What? They are not persuing it anymore (I take that to mean, they are no longer developing it), yet they are no longer tracking it?

IMO, defo went deep black, I'm surprised they announced it at all. Phil schneider was saying they've had 'briefcase' sized nuclear reactors for 20 years at least, in fact, if I remember rightly, he was talking about the mid 70's when he was describing these reactors.

But a microchip? That is quite sick!

EMM

Originally posted by ElectroMagnetic Multivers
Phil schneider was saying they've had 'briefcase' sized nuclear reactors for 20 years at least, in fact, if I remember rightly, he was talking about the mid 70's when he was describing these reactors.

Briefcase FISSION reactors I can believe, considering the reactor for a nuke powered sub is about the size of a trash can... Mind you I wouldn't trust it unless it was behind 10's of tones of shielding! (I think the shielding is where the great leaps in tech should be happening).

But it is important to distinguish between Fusion and Fission... We've been doing fission for years now, ever since Marie Curie figured it out - Fusion is the better bet, but so far as I know it's an 'all or nothing' tech - you either go fo it and make HUGE amounts of energy, or you leave it alone, it's not like a battery where you just charge it up and draw off what you need.

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


...co-coo land? seems like a pretty nice way of saying that the idea is wack. im sure he could come up with worse... and he didn't come off as a jerk when i read the reply. You, however, are like nails on a chalkboard. I get negative vibes from every post i read from you.

but hey, maybe you have your reasons

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


technology evolves pretty linearly. building on itself until the technology required to build a brand new piece of technology is available.

your threads title implies a hand-held fission reactor is in development.

This is far from the truth. Its an idea in the back of somebody's head, perhaps, that is far from becoming a reality within humanity's known technological bounds.

yes... perhaps theirs a black-budget division that is keeping all this amazing technology from the public until its perfected or something. But, unless there is alien intervention (which lets not broach on because it cannot be proven) then our known technology (which is impressive, to say the least, if you keep up with science news) is completely incapable of what is being suggested on a peice of paper in order to get 30 million dollars.

I don't buy it. Just because Leonardo Divinci could design a futuristic plane concept didn't mean it was even a possibility for hundreds of years... and he wasnt an official government entity

Just because they say it doesn't make it so. Besides, if its classified... why would you know about it?

reply to post by Kevin_X2


Appart from you again trying to derail this thread and throw some more insults my way...

First of all, the name of the thread comes directly from the ARTICLE... As part of the requirements for posting in BAN, you have to post the exact name as it is stated in the article...

Second of all, technology does not necessarily evolve as linearly as you claim it does. There have been several inventions that were years, and decades ahead of the curve, and did not progress, or came about in a linear faction.

Inventions often start with an idea, but at times new inventions are found out of pure luck.

The idea for such a portable power source is not new, and it has been on the drawboards for years, if not decades.

The following is from 2007, and of course, this is what we know about.

Tiny plasma particle accelerator smashes record

A metre-long plasma-powered particle accelerator can boost electrons energy to the same degree as a conventional machine 3-kilometres-long, experiments show. For all it does, the diminutive accelerator is also relatively simple, consisting of a metal tube filled with gas.

Physicists use accelerators to crash particles together at enormous speeds. The debris from these collisions can reveal exotic particles and new phenomena. But particle accelerators, which normally accelerate particles using empty cavities filled with electromagnetic fields, need to be kilometres-long to attain such speeds. They also cost billions of dollars to build.

Mark Hogan at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California, US, is developing an alternative. Together with colleagues at SLAC and at the University of California in Los Angeles, US, Hogan has created a much more compact plasma-powered accelerator.

"Taking the beam from a standard accelerator, we've been able to double the energy [from 42 gigaelectronvolts to 84 GeV]," Hogan says.

www.newscientist.com...

Nano-technology was thought as science-fiction not that long ago, but we are finding new ways to make this technology possible.

As to how would I know if this is now a black ops project?... I never said I was 100% possitive it is, but it is possible, which is the reason for this thread, and not for you to feel better about yourself insulting me, and then playing the victim...




[edit on 8-7-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

Only problem is, the project doesn't appear in the 2010 budget

Would DARPA projects ever appear on the budget? I got the impression that all they do is research new and interesting ways to kill people.

And the possible reason it not appearing on the budget might be because it's a black project. Which begs the question, why would we be hearing about it in the news? Well I doubt it would be much of a surprise to the Russians and Chinese to find out that we're trying to make laser guns and free energy.

I thought controlled fusion was still a pipe dream? How are they going to "microtise" it when they can't even make a large scale version work?

lol, if you think i insulted you then you really are sensitive. oh, and btw, you didnt do anything but talk in your reply. You just said a bunch of stuff, im sure you expect me to look it all up myself?

I contributed my bit, i have nothing left to say. You can believe what you want to, but theres no need to be a jerk when someone comes in and tries to debate you.

negative steez for you

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


Technology certainly doesn't evolve linearly.. until 50 - 60 years ago we had pretty much jack all in the form of modern technology and since that time period all sorts of devices have exploded onto the scene.

Look how long humans have lived in darkness for hundreds/thousands of years and then in 50 years we magic all this crap out of thin air?

[edit on 8-7-2009 by ItsallCrazy]

Originally posted by Lazyninja
...........
And the possible reason it not appearing on the budget might be because it's a black project. Which begs the question, why would we be hearing about it in the news? Well I doubt it would be much of a surprise to the Russians and Chinese to find out that we're trying to make laser guns and free energy.

Because we are more of an open society than say China, or Russia.

Try finding what happens when Chinese people try to demand for "transparency in government", and for "all secret/classified documents to be public". It won't happen, and those who try will find themselves dead very soon.

That is not to say that the U.S. does not have black budget inventions which the public doesn't know about, but rather we are a bit more open than some other countries.

[edit on 8-7-2009 by ElectricUniverse]