National Ignition Facility is Firing Up

VernonNemitz writes "Over near San Francisco in California, USA, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is starting to reach the end of 15 years of development work on the National Ignition Facility. The goal is to use 192 high-powered laser beams to blast a pellet of frozen hydrogen isotopes, turning it into a tiny (and thus safe) hydrogen bomb. Currently 4 of the lasers have been commissioned for use in tests; the eventual goal is to get more energy out of the exploding pellet than is dumped into it. Personally I think they'd have an easier time of it if they combined different ideas, but what do I know?"

Comments

Science

[Anonymous Coward]

Personally I think they'd have an easier time of it if they combined different ideas, but what do I know?

I don't think that the goal is simply to generate lots of electricity, but rather to setup and run an experiment that could teach them new things. (Oh, and generate oodles of research papers.)

Usually, in these kinds of basic "understanding" tests (which is still where we really are in terms of our understanding of quantum effects), you don't want to combine multiple strategies ...

Re:meanwhile, the big fusion reactor

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

>in the sky continues to burn 24x7 at no cost, most of its energy completely unused

Yeah, but look how many cases of cancer it's causing. It can't be stored safely because it will remain radioactive for billions of years. There is no realistic plan for decomissioning. Some research implicates it in global warming and it's known to cause destructive storms. Concentrated exposure has been shown to cause smoking and charring in ants.

Other reactors of the gas-core gravitationally confined design have been known to explode, causing great environmental damage.

As soon as someone gets around to filing and reviewing an Environmental Impact Statement, we'll have to shut down that huge nuclear reactor in the sky and replace it with alternatives that environmentalists can accept.