The Virtual Pub

Come Inside... => Saloon Bar => Topic started by: Grumpmeister on March 31, 2009, 02:05:53 PM

Title: It's not just CERN the doomsayers have to worry about now.
Post by: Grumpmeister on March 31, 2009, 02:05:53 PM

The yanks have almost finished building their grand 'recreate the conditions in the heard of the sun' superlaser experiment in order to try and stimulate fusion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7972865.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7972865.stm)

Quote

NIF's beams are intended to deliver more than 60 times the energy of any previous laser system. When fired, the pulse will last just a few nanoseconds (billionths of a second) but it will impart 500 trillion watts of power - more than the peak electrical generating power of the entire United States.

This intense energy will be focused on a ball-bearing-sized pellet of fuel, ablating the surface and compressing the remaining material inwards.

"This process will create temperatures of 100 million degrees and pressures billions of times greater than Earth's atmospheric pressure, forcing the hydrogen nuclei to fuse and release many times more energy than the laser energy required to spark the reaction," said Dr Moses.

Ah, there is nothing to worry about. It's the Americans, what could possibly go wrong?  whistle:

Title: Re: It's not just CERN the doomsayers have to worry about now.
Post by: Nick on March 31, 2009, 02:12:54 PM

Seems very sensible to me!

Title: Re: It's not just CERN the doomsayers have to worry about now.
Post by: Barman on March 31, 2009, 02:28:49 PM

There was an interesting 'Horizon' about Fusion (including this experiment) a short while ago...

The unanimous conclusion was that fusion is quite feasible and practical to use if the willpower of the governments was there to fund it...

Title: Re: It's not just CERN the doomsayers have to worry about now.
Post by: Grumpmeister on March 31, 2009, 02:39:21 PM

Well that's us out of the running then BM. This government wouldnt know willpower if it came up and danced the can can naked on the tip of their noses jabbing them in the eye with a cattle prod.  Banghead

Title: Re: It's not just CERN the doomsayers have to worry about now.
Post by: Nick on March 31, 2009, 05:53:02 PM

I believe Jackboot's husband has tried that!