Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab

[n2doc]

By Paul Rincon
Science Editor, BBC News website

Researchers at a US lab have passed a crucial milestone on the way to their ultimate goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion.

Harnessing fusion - the process that powers the Sun - could provide an unlimited and cheap source of energy.

But to be viable, fusion power plants would have to produce more energy than they consume, which has proven elusive.

Now, a breakthrough by scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) could boost hopes of scaling up fusion.

NIF, based at Livermore in California, uses 192 beams from the world's most powerful laser to heat and compress a small pellet of hydrogen fuel to the point where nuclear fusion reactions take place.

The BBC understands that during an experiment in late September, the amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel - the first time this had been achieved at any fusion facility in the world.

more

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24429621

[johnd83]

1. Great news

We need something technologically and economically disruptive like fusion power or we are screwed. Although fusion power has been a pipe dream for years it seems like it is closer than people realized.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Yep.

Planet needs a hail mary pass. Bigtime.

[johnd83]

3. If we get sulfer-lithium batteries, fusion power, and graphene desalination...

the next few hundred years actually look pretty amazing. I sometimes wonder if that is what the GOP is really afraid of.

[DetlefK]

6. Plus a large-scale switch to a vegetarian diet.

If all those agrarian areas that produce food for animals were instead used to plant crops for humans, earth could sustain 10 billion humans.
(I know, a lot of this is grass-land, but think about all the grain that is fed to pigs and chickens.)

[johnd83]

7. High density algae production for feed would probably be sufficient

The high density biomass would probably not work for human food but for feed it would probably be fine. The main problem I see is it requires quite a bit of water but with graphene desalination it wouldn't be a problem.

[DetlefK]

8. Not feasible in terms of energy-density.

Eating algae would be like eating lettuce. Have you ever tried eating nothing but lettuce as a full meal?

The energy-density of the green parts of plants is way too low. (That's why we eat roots and fruits.) Our stomachs would be full, but there wouldn't be enough chemical energy inside our meal to saturate us.

We need starch and proteins: Grains and beans.

[longship]

4. It's a good start, but there are still huge hurdles to cross.

The NIF is a huge lab, a one off. And even it doesn't have the capability to build a fusion power plant. The main reason is because it cannot fire its massive LASERs fast enough for practical and useful energy production.

Then, there are the economic issues. The promise of fusion power has always been sold as safe and cheap -- power too cheap to meter. Okay! We all know that's a bit of hyperbole. But the manufacturing of the fuel pellets has to be easy and cheap to make this kind of thing practical, if not possible.

Still, this is a big and necessary first step.

Good for Lawrence Livermore Lab.

R&K

[johnd83]

5. There is another design by Lochkeed Martin that I think has a better chance of working

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-02/fusion-power-could-happen-sooner-you-think

Either way it seems like fusion is coming.

[The Polywell Guy]

9. 13 Year old does Fusion. Was on Letterman show (4-9-2014).

John83,

Lockheed machine is more promising. Based on what we know, it is part of a class of fusion machines. These include:

1. Fusors
2. Polywells
3. Lockheeds machine
4. POPS,....

They all use an electric field to heat ions to fusion conditions. Basically, the electric field does work on the ions, heating them.


For the past 5 years, I have been blogging about Fusors and Polywells. I plan to do a post on Lockheeds machine soon.

Fusors will never make power because the wire cages conduct away ions. Polywells might work. They swap the cage for a cloud of electrons.

These things are incredibly simple to build and are very cheap. They are so simple, an 8th grader has fused the atom with them.

On March 4th, an 8th grader in Lincolnshire England, became The Youngest Person In the World To Do Nuclear Fusion. He built a fusor, for 3,000 pounds, in his middle school. His name is Jamie Edwards. His story was reposted across the web. He got a letter of congratulations from His Royal Highness, Prince Andrew, The Duke of York.

Jamie was on the letterman show talking about Nuclear Fusion, on Wednesday. You can watch the clip here:

[IMG][/IMG]