Lawrence Livermore scientists make fusion breakthrough (a step in the right direction for future ene

Came across this when I was doing a news search on GOOGLE for future propulsion systems, and was pleasantly satisfied with the news, basicaly it talks about experiments in to a similar power source that the fictional warp drive in star trek is powered by, or similar to that effect, but it does not just mean we could maybe power a warp drive in the future, it means many applications for the future power consumption of the HUMAN RACE. Enjoy....

LIVERMORE, Calif. (KGO) -- Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have taken a major step toward making energy the same way the sun does.

The lab's national ignition facility is the size of three football fields; all to focus a giant wallop of energy on one tiny spot.

"We're basically recreating a small piece of the sun inside, inside the laboratory," physicist Pravesh Patel said. "Which has never been done before."

The sun creates energy through nuclear fusion -- squeezing atoms together until they merge into one, giving off massive heat.
Science fiction fans probably know that fusion powers the warp drive on the Starship Enterprise.

and finally...

Right now, the fuel's giving off about twice the energy they put into it, but only a tiny bit at the center is actually reacting.

here's the LINKY

What do you all think, is it a promising avenue of research, or more pie in the sky?

PEACE!!

This was posted a couple of times a few weeks ago, here is the one i made:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by DARREN1976


I think the containment field required would need to be strong. Almost makes me wonder how they can achieve this without effecting the earths magnetosphere.
I guess we will find out fast if they get it wrong lol

reply to post by Indigent



Thanks for that, I should really use the search function before i go gung-ho on something!
PEACE!!!

reply to post by UltraverseMaximus




I believe you are right, with this kind of fusion it has a potential to be enormous thermally, so it would make sense an operational version of this would need to be contained especially if it is kicking out double what's being put in! Think, "exponential growth"...

What I kind of don't get about this technique: how are they going to keep the fusion-process going for more than a couple of microseconds?


The lasers fired, the target imploded and sent off more energy than needed to engage the lasers, okay.

Now what? The powerbanks for the lasers have to be reloaded without overloading the local electrical network - which should take SOME time.

In the mean time - no energy output?

DARREN1976


The sun creates energy through nuclear fusion -- squeezing atoms together until they merge into one, giving off massive heat.
Science fiction fans probably know that fusion powers the warp drive on the Starship Enterprise.

Actually the enterprise is powered by a matter-antimatter drive. The reaction is controlled via dilithium crystals.

reply to post by yorkshirelad


This is correct. The magnetic fields keep the matter/anti-matter from blowing everything sky high. This is called a "warp core breach". The energy is then transfered to the warp nacelles that create a "warp field" around the ship that warps space/time around it.

The various incarnations of the Enterprise DO use fusion reactors though -- they are used for the impulse engines for sub-light travel.

yorkshirelad

DARREN1976


The sun creates energy through nuclear fusion -- squeezing atoms together until they merge into one, giving off massive heat.
Science fiction fans probably know that fusion powers the warp drive on the Starship Enterprise.

Actually the enterprise is powered by a matter-antimatter drive. The reaction is controlled via dilithium crystals.

yup all of the series federation ships were powered by antimatter. but from cochrane's phoenix up until just before Captain Archer's time they were powered by Fusion. and of course the romulans went from fusion to quantum singularity power.

incidentally something like dilithium is possible if we ever learn to make atoms out of smaller substitutes for protons and neutrons. the annihilation reaction is at the quark level. so if your nuclear particles in the nucleus had different quarks than regular matter then antimatter would not annihilate on contact.

in trek's universe dilithium has part of its existence in subspace. it also had the unique property that when subjected to a magnetic field antimatter would pass through it rather than react with it. thus it could be used to mediate matter antimatter reactions.

but if para baryonic matter ever becomes real it could do the same thing. not to mention you would have a parallel periodic table of matter just like in trek. plus the new form of matter would have extreme physical, chemical and nuclear properties.

ManFromEurope
What I kind of don't get about this technique: how are they going to keep the fusion-process going for more than a couple of microseconds?


The lasers fired, the target imploded and sent off more energy than needed to engage the lasers, okay.

Now what? The powerbanks for the lasers have to be reloaded without overloading the local electrical network - which should take SOME time.

In the mean time - no energy output?

these types of fusion reactors are shooting for intermittent fusion. think of it as like the pistons in a car. they don't all fire at the same time and the power is produced intermittently. but you experience the power as a continuous output of the engine anyway. eventually we will work out a way to keep the fusion rate continuous too. but first things first.

incidentally this thing that they did is not break even. the whole thing did not produce energy equivalent to the losses in the whole system just what made it into the target was doubled by the fusion. it just produced more energy than was zapped into the target. but it is still an achievement milestone.

double post. internet hiccup.

I'm surprised that I'm the only one to S+F your thread. I'm glad that we've finally arrived at that level of technological sophistication.

reply to post by UltraverseMaximus


Yea, and we wonder about earthquakes and volcanoes lately. It reminds me of the yahoo's in Switzerland, looking for bosin and opens a portal with a giant sitting there. Lol.. Course this depends on who and what you believe. Lol.

I think they are messing with stuff that could end us all lol.

The Bot

ManFromEurope
What I kind of don't get about this technique: how are they going to keep the fusion-process going for more than a couple of microseconds?


The lasers fired, the target imploded and sent off more energy than needed to engage the lasers, okay.

Now what? The powerbanks for the lasers have to be reloaded without overloading the local electrical network - which should take SOME time.

In the mean time - no energy output?

the NIFs purpose is not to make a viable power producing reactor. even though the intermittent fusion method is what most researchers are pursuing. the NIF's purpose is to achieve ignition. which is to say: to produce enough excess power to sustain the next shot.

there are other groups planning on using this style of fusion for space propulsion. they think they could have a full prototype engine in 2018. they are certain it will work because they have tested all of the sub components successfully. now they want funding to put all the systems together and test it as a system. they are even crowd funding part of their project.

stormbringer1701

ManFromEurope
What I kind of don't get about this technique: how are they going to keep the fusion-process going for more than a couple of microseconds?


The lasers fired, the target imploded and sent off more energy than needed to engage the lasers, okay.

Now what? The powerbanks for the lasers have to be reloaded without overloading the local electrical network - which should take SOME time.

In the mean time - no energy output?

the NIFs purpose is not to make a viable power producing reactor. even though the intermittent fusion method is what most researchers are pursuing. the NIF's purpose is to achieve ignition. which is to say: to produce enough excess power to sustain the next shot.

The NIF's purpose is nuclear weapons code calibration. There is no energy capture from the 'excess power' or any possible.

dlbott
reply to post by UltraverseMaximus

 

Yea, and we wonder about earthquakes and volcanoes lately. It reminds me of the yahoo's in Switzerland, looking for bosin and opens a portal with a giant sitting there. Lol.. Course this depends on who and what you believe. Lol.

I think they are messing with stuff that could end us all lol.

The Bot

You don't know how close to the truth you are lol. What do you know about giants
It could end us but it could also end them and not us, or it may actually lead to better understanding of the cosmos..per say

mbkennel

stormbringer1701

ManFromEurope
What I kind of don't get about this technique: how are they going to keep the fusion-process going for more than a couple of microseconds?


The lasers fired, the target imploded and sent off more energy than needed to engage the lasers, okay.

Now what? The powerbanks for the lasers have to be reloaded without overloading the local electrical network - which should take SOME time.

In the mean time - no energy output?

the NIFs purpose is not to make a viable power producing reactor. even though the intermittent fusion method is what most researchers are pursuing. the NIF's purpose is to achieve ignition. which is to say: to produce enough excess power to sustain the next shot.

The NIF's purpose is nuclear weapons code calibration. There is no energy capture from the 'excess power' or any possible.

That is one of thier missions. it is not the only one. it's not even the original purpose. they were a sop to those disappointed that we didn't make a national fusion effort on the scale of ITER on our own.

stormbringer1701

mbkennel
The NIF's purpose is nuclear weapons code calibration. There is no energy capture from the 'excess power' or any possible.

That is one of thier missions. it is not the only one. it's not even the original purpose.

Yes it is. The design is not realistic for power and overwhelming majority of runs are for NNSA.

Don't confuse advertising with reality.

UltraverseMaximus

dlbott
reply to post by UltraverseMaximus

 

Yea, and we wonder about earthquakes and volcanoes lately. It reminds me of the yahoo's in Switzerland, looking for bosin and opens a portal with a giant sitting there. Lol.. Course this depends on who and what you believe. Lol.

I think they are messing with stuff that could end us all lol.

The Bot

You don't know how close to the truth you are lol. What do you know about giants

It could end us but it could also end them and not us, or it may actually lead to better understanding of the cosmos..per say

Mentioning the giant part, I have always pondered this myself, we think of ourseelves as the macrocosm world, the bacteria and atoms etc. Being the microcosom, what if we are the micro cosm? You remember the end of men in black don't you? Imagine finding out we are in that sitution. And as for the oter a few above saying about the antimatter drive on star.trek not fusion... hey man, I just quoted it as it was written in the article my friend. PEACE!!

reply to post by DARREN1976


As far the micro/macro expressions go it really depends on how far your consciousness can ride the wave as a particle Slater
Hope you got the little reference there hehe
Sometimes I am the bacteria in the trash can, sometimes the burger that gets tossed in the can and sometimes the person tossing the burger.
It was a MacDonald's silicon, erm beef burger