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So it's OK if stars have their rotation axii aligned together:

http://www.cea.fr/english/Page...

Then galaxies seemed to be aligned with their rotation axii as well:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.281...

Same with quasars billions of light-years apart:

https://futurism.com/rotationa...

Gravity can pull objects together, but it takes electromagnetism to get them to align together.
That would suggest electric fields and currents.

6min30 for a Tokamak design, record date is 2003: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
some video of it: http://www-fusion-magnetique.c...

So 1000sec in 2012 is not a shock to me.

Saddam did have an advanced nuclear program,

Yes, very advanced, based on legally obtained research reactors from France and the Soviet Uniton. You know, the kind that's too small to produce anything but small amount of isotopes. You can read more about them here, so that you educate yourself, and stop with the bullshit. http://www.cad.cea.fr/rjh/Add-....

As to his "sikrit nukular program", which was neither very advanced, not too nuclear, it came about in response to another country in the region building their own nukes with a lot of support from we know who. Well, it is called proliferation and is frowned upon for a good reason -- once you pop, you can't stop.

Built and used large amounts of chemical weapons.

To use in the proxy war between US and Iran, with the help of the German chemical industry.

He also built biological weapons

Yes, and Tony Blair found them all under his bed on Downing street 10, right after he impregnated Cherie for the fourth time.

My bad, it's 11T. See links below for info.

This is the existing 9T MRI with 80cm bore.

http://medgadget.com/2007/12/94_tesla_monster_mri.html

This is the whole-body 11T MRI being built

http://irfu.cea.fr/en/Phocea/Vie_des_labos/Ast/ast_visu.php?id_ast=3058

Some of the underlying technology:

http://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/print/2551
http://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/10402-software-platform-for-mri-phased-array-system-design-optimization
http://www.hfmmagazine.com/hfmmagazine_app/jsp/articledisplay.jsp?dcrpath=AHA/PubsNewsArticleGen/data/0403HFM_NEWS_Construction
http://www.aapm.org/meetings/05am/pdf/18-2826-94182-387.pdf

The UT-3 cycle + the ferrite cycle might work better in combination. Ferrite water cracking until the material is passivated at which point UT-3 takes over in a separate reaction chamber

You've seen little advance because you're not reading much on the matter I think

this for instance

or that

or maybe this

In short we are within a factor 10 of achieving ignition, meaning a long, self-sustained fusion reaction outputting more energy than is expended to maintain it. In 1968 we were within a factor of 1000 of achieving this.

The ITER deadline for achieving his is 2020.

The French public sector (much bigger in proportion than the US one) did contribute significantly to opensource software (for example, the first linux thread library and Ocaml has both been written by a French public sector researcher, Xavier Leroy, and you'll find thousands of other cases, like Frama-C.).

Also, French government did issue several contracts (outside of Gendarmerie) to support opensource software, and did pay development of significant applications. My perception is that the French government is supportive to open-source.

At last, French private sector is increasingly contributing to opensource projects (for example Penjili at EADS or Airbus).

Unfortunately, several French government sites are using proprieray (non-standard) technologies (like Flash at Assemblée Nationale - the lower Parlement Chamber).

The French non-profit APRIL association is quite powerful at lobbying for free software.

No. I'm thinking something more like this. See the difference? Your two-wrap lightbulb coil is going to make a pretty sucky electromagnet even if it is superconducting.

It's technically possible to make a reasonable magnet out of ceramic "wires" but I understated the problem: it's not a real pain, it's an incredibly unbelievable pain. With ductile wires? Just program your winding machine and go for coffee.

Related links: * LDX@MIT
* Physics of magnetically confined fusion [pdf]
* The main principles of magnetic fusion
* Magnetic fusion experiments at LANL
* High density magnetic fusion
* Has a good bit on magnetic confinement
* Can a magnetic field be used to contain plasma?
* International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
* What's happening in fusion?
* Design of magnetic fields for fusion experiments [pdf]
* Wikipedia article on the topic
* Magnetized target fusion bibliography
* Plasma physics bibliography
* Databases for plasma physics

* Plasma physics laboratories
* List of plasma physicists
* Plasma on the internet

Here's the particles that'll fly out of a fusion reactor. Make electricity out of it

Gee golly! If only there was a fuel cell technology that could use something other than pure hydrogen. Or if it must be hydrogen, maybe if there was a way to use the otherwise dense hydrogen-storing capability of readily available and stable hydrocarbon fuels as a source... hmmmmmm...

But no, it's much too much fun to just fly off the handle isn't it?

Preemptive rebuttal: Don't bitch about temperatures and scalability of the above references. That's what research is for. Point is "hydrogen" is too much of a buzzword and there are plenty of promising technologies out there.
=Smidge=

I too thought tritium was a dangerous fuel, but the wiki (thanks kobun) and this say otherwise.

There is a small issue with bioaccumulation (not real accumulation as such) in that gaseous tritium *can* be converted into water and organic compounds, but little of it does in pratice. Tritium in water (THO) is easily absorbed, but also eliminated basically by making you pass lots of water. Plants can turn THO into organic compounds but only a small percentage of *that* in practice is converted. Equaling not much of not much is not much of a worry...

As tritium dissipates quickly and has a short half life (being basically nonexistant after 100-odd years) and is only weakly radioactive it really isnt that bad... Who would have thought it? it is nukalar after all...

Facetious 1592, from Fr. facétieux, from facétie "a joke," from L. facetia, from facetus "witty, elegant," of unknown origin, perhaps related to facis "torch." It implies a desire to be amusing, often intrusive or ill-timed.

As far as I can read, it seems rather impressive. Their record for plama duration is... 390s ! More information on the fusion-dedicated French CEA (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique) site (in English).

But the question is honest: what have achieved the Japanese? Is their plasma self-sustaining? Have they reached break-even point and maintained it during the whole 28.6 seconds?

Anyway, just give a look to the CEA site: from pictures to videos, plenty to discover there.

There is more energy in the uranium and thorium spewed out from the black belched smoke in a coal power plant than in the coal which it burned. We are literally pissing gold away.

Nuclear power is the safest way of generating electricity per GWhr we have.

Nuclear fission power alone could fullfill all our present energy requirements. Of course, this is not what would happen in the real world. For example, France uses hydro power for most of the other 24% of the electricity they require. Wind power is also economical in the right places. I have little doubt we will eventually turn to biodiesel for transportation, even if for no other reason, it is energy dense and works on current internal combustion engines. But trying to devise an economy without fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum) using existing technology without putting nuclear power into the mix is *not* going to work.

this looks much the LMJ (laser megajoule) we are going to get here in France. We also claim it will world's most powerful. I don't know which one is better, but we'll have 240 beams versus 192 beams on the US facility :D
http://www-lmj.cea.fr/html/cea.htm

First time I've heard of this technology it was 15 years ago. This has been originally developped at the LETI (a french research institute). PixTech (also french) seems to be an emanation from this lab.

FED displays are based on the so-called 'tip effect' (not sure about the english term, in french it's 'effet de pointe'). This electromagnetic effect is what makes lightning rods work. To simplify, each pixel is thus basically filled with micro-lightning rods that throw particles towards the phosphore.

AFAIK, in France, the nuclear waste is mostly recycled (in the La Hague plant). Ultimate nuclear waste (the "ashes" of this recycling) might be buried deep underground (and remains a political problem). The French parlement would take a decision after 2006.

France's nuclear waste policy is very different from the US policy.

See http://www.andra.fr/ and http://www.cea.fr/ for more (French sites).

Design? Are there not existing designs which are good enough? Like the designs for the reactors providing 25% of our current electricity. Or pebble bed reactors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor), or one of the other advanced designs? The French seem to be building reactors with the current designs without any problems. See http://www.cea.fr/gb/institutions/nuclear_power.ht m, for example. Funding could be done with 1 congressional vote, if people wanted to. Ditto regulation. Infrastructure (power lines, plant siting, etc.) would take more time, but not 20-30 years. What's missing is the desire to become energy independent and the willingess to make sacrifices.

What could either of them gain from supporting oil sales through war in Iraq (which in it's very nature was doomed to destroy fixed corporate oil assets). Do you know what Halliburton does? They rebuild oil fields, and other critical infrastructure. What did Cheney, personally, gain? I'm not sure exactly. But I find it an awfully big coincidence that Halliburton is getting no-bid contracts for rebuilding Iraq when their former CEO is in the White House.

It's been around here since 1969, and still used today in La Hague nuclear repocessing plant. You will find many details (in english) on the web site of the CEA (Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique), a governmental agency. They say that glass packages are guaranteed for millions of years.

It's been around here since 1969, and still used today in La Hague nuclear repocessing plant. You will find many details (in english) on the web site of the CEA (Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique), a governmental agency. They say that glass packages are guaranteed for millions of years.

i can tell you that ash is mostly silica

"Coal ash is composed primarily of oxides of silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, magnesium, titanium, sodium, potassium, arsenic, mercury, and sulfur plus small quantities of uranium and thorium. Fly ash is primarily composed of non-combustible silicon compounds (glass) melted during combustion. Tiny glass spheres form the bulk of the fly ash.

"Since the 1960s particulate precipitators have been used by U.S. coal-fired power plants to retain significant amounts of fly ash rather than letting it escape to the atmosphere. When functioning properly, these precipitators are approximately 99.5% efficient. Utilities also collect furnace ash, cinders, and slag, which are kept in cinder piles or deposited in ash ponds on coal-plant sites along with the captured fly ash.

"Trace quantities of uranium in coal range from less than 1 part per million (ppm) in some samples to around 10 ppm in others. Generally, the amount of thorium contained in coal is about 2.5 times greater than the amount of uranium. For a large number of coal samples, according to Environmental Protection Agency figures released in 1984, average values of uranium and thorium content have been determined to be 1.3 ppm and 3.2 ppm, respectively. Using these values along with reported consumption and projected consumption of coal by utilities provides a means of calculating the amounts of potentially recoverable breedable and fissionable elements (see sidebar). The concentration of fissionable uranium-235 (the current fuel for nuclear power plants) has been established to be 0.71% of uranium content."

Source: Alex Gabbard for Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Oh, but I forgot. Anyone who doesn't speak well of coal is a nuclear industry shill.

No I didn't, and I suspect the only people who do know have read some pamphlet on behalf of the nuclear industry. It sounds very unlikely to me - where is it all going to come from?

From the coal beds themselves. Uranium and thorium are naturally occuring materials.

If that was the case every plant would fail unles it is built in a place with low background radiation. I suggest you read about radiation from physics, chemistry or radiography texts.

"The NRC allows 10 mrems per year to persons living next to the property line of a nuclear plant, but its guidelines recommend a maximum of 5 mrems per year, and in point of fact, it starts investigating when this guideline limit is even approached.

"In comparison, a person receives an internal dose of about 20 mrems per year from his/her own blood (mainly due to potassium 40, contained in many protein foods), 35 mrems from building materials, 35 from cosmic rays, 25 from food, 11 from the ground, 5 from the air, 103 from X-rays diagnostics, etc."

Source: Nuclear Power and the Environment, International AEC, Vienna and The US Environmental Protection Agency

Once again - straight out of an advertisement instead of reality. Invoking secrecy is a great way to cook the books and pretend you are breaking even without a subsidy - British Nuclear Fuels had no such luxury so we know how many billions they have lost.

So am I to understand that France is losing money hand over fist because they are a nuclear-heavy country with 76% of all electricity there coming from nuclear? Why does Germany have so many nuclear reactors if they are so expensive? Are they cooking the books as well? Are you also factoring the more than $1 billion paid each year to sufferers of Black Lung?

In the land of the SUV with Bush as President the greens dictate energy policy? Please think before you make such assertions. The USA stopp

Last time I checked, Canada, Russia and China preferred the Japanese site.

• EU (28%)
• Japan (28%)
• Russia (14%)
• USA (10%)
• China (10%)
• South-Korea (10%)

Last time I checked, Canada, Russia and China preferred the Japanese site.

• EU (28%)
• Japan (28%)
• Russia (14%)
• USA (10%)
• China (10%)
• South-Korea (10%)

Last time I checked, Canada, Russia and China preferred the Japanese site.

• EU (28%)
• Japan (28%)
• Russia (14%)
• USA (10%)
• China (10%)
• South-Korea (10%)

I suppose then it should also come as no surprise to you that France is building a new megajoule class laser (right on par with the US's NIF project) to test its nuclear weapon simulations.

I don't get it. Why is the transportation of hydrogen any different from the above examples? Or is the writer just making careless statements?

That said, I can think of a few ways to build storage containers and pipelines that would ensure that leaked hydrogen re-entered the atmosphere as water rather than pure hydrogen. An obvious solution is to surrond the storage container or pipeline in a bed of powdered catalyst and pump oxygen through the bed. Any hydrogen that escapes the container or pipe will combine with oxygen in the catalytic bed, producing water.

This wouldn't solve the leakage problem (you would still lose a fair percentage of your product) but it would easily take care of environmental effects: the qantity of waste hydrogen (emerging as water vapor) would never be more than a small fraction of the total water vapor released into the atmosphere by natural action (plant respiration, evaporation, volcanism, etc.)

Each exposure will produce about 770 MB of data; the mosaic will be read out in about 20 seconds which means that Megacam will produce approximately 100 images (science fields and calibration) per night, ie 77 GB of data each night or about 1 TB of data for an average observing run.

Actually, if you follow the link to megaprime from ARS, you'll find that the camera is called MegaCam, from the MegaPrime project...
http://www-dapnia.cea.fr/ ... /index.html (Link works, but Slashdot pushes spaces in words over 40
chars

Hmm... what I thought of instantly was the fellow that turned a flatbed scanner into a wide-field still image camera.
Building a megapixel digital camera from a flatbed scanner

And the later revisions in the concept by interested folks with science as their tool of genius.
Industry always begins with hacking existing toys Thus the ultimate reason the DMCA is a BAD BAD BAD law.
Improved Scanning Digital Camera

I see the article is about an array of the imaging sensors with one bigass lens. I guess they'll get a quicker image this way.

Cryogenic The cooling is done using a "pulse tube", a closed-cycle cooler with no moving part, therefore no vibrations. The cold capacity is used to keep the CCD mosaic cold during the installation of the instrument at the prime focus.

AHHHHCHOOOOOO!!!!

(sniff)

Aw, man. We really should get a sneeze guard for this thing. Someone get me some kleenex WITHOUT lotion, 'kay?

The article doesn't say. What was the previous record?

And what percent of France's energy mix comes from nuclear power?* I thought so. Not that I'm defending Europe, or France, just pointing out that blanket generalizations suck.

Eak

*About 76%, according to the CEA.

Quick translation:
..... The power of 5 teraflops is obtained by the use of the Compaq Alphaserver SC series of supercomputers.....
The installation of this supercomputer ..... is the first of three steps in the realisation of the nuclear weapon simulation centre. The second step, towards the year 2005, will see an increase to a power of between 30 and 50 teraflops and the last step, 2009, to a machine of about a 100 teraflops.
.....