Posted by
michael
on from the now-I'll-never-get-a-mr.-fusion dept.
Chuck1318 writes "The US is halting its national nuclear fusion energy project, FIRE, and pinning its hopes on the internation fusion research program ITER. However, ITER is stalled over a dispute on where to locate the facility. The dream of fusion power is getting no closer..."
Oh, and also, if it goes out of control and creates a small black hole that slowly starts consuming everything, we'll have time to use the bits of the moon that are left to shove the whole mess off into the Sun.
Or something...
-- ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets.
--
Re:Put it on the Moon.
by
Icarus1919
·
· Score: 4, Funny
The fusion reactor isn't what we need to worry about, it's the particle colliding experiments that could cause the whole planet to change into a different form of matter, strange matter.
Whether this will give us superpowers or not is yet to be determined.
Re:Put it on the Moon.
by
BabyDave
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Oh, and also, if it goes out of control and creates a small black hole that slowly starts consuming everything, we'll have time to use the bits of the moon that are left to shove the whole mess off into the Sun.
Yes, 'cause if there's one place we should dump an all-consuming singularity, it's in the middle of our most important source of heat, light and food (via photosynthesis). At least we'll have a backup source, namely... er, the fusion research station we just fired into the sun. Fuck.
Re:Put it on the Moon.
by
tomhudson
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Nah, if you read the article, it states:
is stalled over a dispute on where to locate the facility.
... because they can't decide which middle east/third world country deserves to be ground zeroH^H^H^H^H^H^Hthe test site
Re:Put it on the Moon.
by
ch-chuck
·
· Score: 5, Funny
The Union Aerospace Corporation could probably handle a moon research facility with no problem.
Re:Put it on the Moon.
by
meringuoid
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Nah. We blow up the Moon, we just have to put up with it. Earth will become a total backwater, of course, what with all the impacts, but that would certainly accelerate the settlement of the solar system.
With a network of jump gates, and the terraforming of most of the larger satellites of Jupiter and Saturn (heat source: to be determined), we could put together quite a nice culture.
Note: be sure to switch off all artificially intelligent laser-armed spy satellites before leaving planet. Who knows what they'll take into their minds over a hundred years or so...
-- Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Re:Put it on the Moon.
by
Paradigm+Lost
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Well, it seems to me that having a black hole eat the moon wouldn't be *so* bad.
But the evenings would be much less romantic. And what about the poor Werewolves? WON'T SOMEONE *PLEASE* THINK OF THE WEREWOLVES?!!
-- -Dead Lesbian Witches! Think about it!
Re:Put it on the Moon.
by
aelbric
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Well, maybe not Japan.
-- nos laetus epulor qui would domito nos
Re:Put it on the Moon.
by
_anomaly_
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Don't you mean scary words like "nucular"?
;-)
-- "I have no special gift, I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein
Meanwhile, we have a massive fusion plant in the center of the solar system that's been operating maintenance free for eons and we're barely even exploiting it.
Yeah, but safety standards have since been raised, and you couldn't get that design built today. It may not be nearby, but it is completely unshielded, and prolonged exposure to it's radiation is known to cause cancer.
ITER is stalled over a dispute on where to locate the facility
This reminds me of a passage from of a Woody Allen book I read. Two professors
chasing and hitting each other with umbrellas over the campus area in order
to settle the dispute on whether the bell marks college end or break begin.
--
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
...that a black hole would consume the sun as well, right? The best thing you could do with a black hole, is to stay the hell away from it. Of course, if you can compress the moon to an object less than 0.05455mm (yes, millimeters) in radius , I think there's some wierd shit going on already...
Kjella
-- Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Oh, unshielded, you say? Well, let's just lift off away that convective zone there and see what 'unshielded' really means... You got your factor three billion sunblock handy, mortals?
-- J. Hover, chief stellar engineer, Sirius Sector
-- Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
The Sun puts out about 3.9E26 watts, of which the Earth intercepts some 1.7E17 watts.
We're using about a two-billionth of the Sun's power. I think that counts as 'barely even exploiting it'.
-- Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Re:Solar power is still vastly underutilized
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 1, Funny
Like distributed computing, I think distributed power generation would work amazingly well. If there were millions and millions of homes generating power alongside our power plants (nukes, not dirty fossil fuel plants), we could achieve energy independence from foreign nations, reduce fossil fuel dependence, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from oil/coal buring powerplants.
Yes! Millions of automotive fuel cells running on magical fairy juice that simply appears at the millions of generating facilities (garages) distributed willy nilly across the suburbs of our vast land! Without care as to proximity to water resources (for cooling), transportation resources (for fueling), or air quality (ground level emissions - but wait, this is probably magical HYDROGEN fairy juice!).
It's a good thing that the electrical grid is just a big old lake of electrons, where you can take power whenever/however you want, and dump power back on whenever/however you want, without care as to supply and demand and load balancing and transmission limitations. Oh, and better yet, since the magic fairy juice generating plant creates DC power, everyone can have their very own incredibly wasteful DC power inverter so that they can put the power back on the grid in a form that's useful for transmitting electricity for more than about, oh, a mile.
Friendly friend rainbow monkey goodbye hugs to everyone!
Re:Would it be simpler in natural vacuum?
by
rs79
·
· Score: 3, Funny
you still have to transfer the power back towards consumers on earth, and THAT'S a big problem....lots of little rechargable batteries.
Dream of fusion power?
by
tod_miller
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I think the reality of fusion power is not getting any closer, whereas the dream would seem to have already arrived, taken off it's shoes and asked whats for dinner.
I just hope fusion engineers/scientists are not like computer programmers (me included).
*Boom*
Aaah I see, yep, yep, yep, thought so, no no problem, can we schedule a test for next week? Yep, gimme a minute i'll check the calculations...
*Bigger Boom*
Ooooh, mmmm mmm, yep, no - that's good, we are doing something right, that was definately different, lets hope we don't get a BlackHoleException, yeah, I'd throw a try/catch around that whole nasty business there... *vague pointing*
*fading image of old tv screen switching off*
*smacks head* d'oh! Oh well at least the moon base survived...
What about the fusion wastes?
by
PGillingwater
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I'm shocked and surprised that no-one has even begun to consider the effects of fusion waste products, specifically Di-Hydrogen Monoxide. This substance has killed millions of people in the last hundred or so years, yet no one seems to DO anything about it.
According to the DHMO FAQ, this lethal substance is responsible for:
Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities.
Prolonged exposure to solid DHMO causes severe tissue damage.
Excessive ingestion produces a number of unpleasant though not typically life-threatening side-effects.
DHMO is a major component of acid rain.
Gaseous DHMO can cause severe burns.
Contributes to soil erosion.
Leads to corrosion and oxidation of many metals.
Contamination of electrical systems often causes short-circuits.
Exposure decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.
Found in biopsies of pre-cancerous tumors and lesions.
Often associated with killer cyclones in the U.S. Midwest and elsewhere.
Thermal variations in DHMO are a suspected contributor to the El Nino weather effect.
Please do your part in warning your friends of this dangerous substance.
Here are a few things that I've always wondered about so-called 'free energy' sources:
1. Solar.
We put up solar panels everywhere we possibly could. We get unlimited free energy. After a few years, the temprature of the Earth begins to drop due to the fact that the energy which would have been converted to heat is now used for other things. Even if those things produce heat as a biproduct, some heat will still be lost. We all freeze.
We put solar panels in space and beam the energy to the surface. Exact oppisite problem. The Earth begins to heat up due to extra evergy in the system. We all burn.
2. Wind.
We put up big windmils everywhere. All the birds fly into them. We are all eaten by insect plagues. Even if the insects don't kill us, shifting weather paterns due to disrupted wind system wreak havoc on the planet. We all die.
3. Waves.
Same prob as wind. We either kill off all the fish, or disrupt the ocean's currents to the point that we all die.
4. Geothermal.
Let's take heat from the crust that escapes anyway and use it to drive turbines. Turbines need pressure. Pressure that would have been released naturally is now stored in the crust till peak hours. Pressure in the crust causes massive earthquakes. We all die.
So, here is my question: How do we get the things we need without causing harm? Fussion seems like the only easy answer. There really isn't anything else for us...is there?
-- I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
There will be no fusion power
by
b-baggins
·
· Score: 2, Funny
What makes you think we'll ever have fusion power? Do you honestly think that environmentalists will EVER approve the construction of a power plant that produces high-energy neutrons as a byproduct and can turn into a nuclear bomb in a runaway reaction?
The hurdles for fusion power are not technical, they're social.
-- You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
Fusion? Still got the Horse and Oxen !
by
B_SharpC
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Fusion free energy will just make you more fat and lazy.
The horse and oxen will keep you fit and trim.:-)
There are not exclusively political motivations here. (And for fuck's sake, how did this get modded +4 Insightful?)
FIRE is *one* fusion research program of dozens of federally funded fusion research programs of all sorts in the US.
As for point 2, "Huh??" FIRE had a $2M/year annual budget. Again, this is but ONE of many, many, many fusion programs in the US. This isn't going to defray anything.
For point 3, now you're just getting wacko. You're implying that it's some huge trick to make people think we're cooperating internationally, but that secretly, the elitist Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rumsfeld/Illuminati conspiracy believes that fusion will only succeed with US involvement, therefore the motivation is CLEARLY to *prevent* it from succeeded, certainly to line their pockets with money from the oil industry.
To you folks who believe this shit routinely: are you fucking serious?
To review: there are MANY fusion research programs in the US, some larger than FIRE. FIRE was just ONE program. We are NOT "abandoning" fusion research. Sheesh. Take off your fucking tinfoil bodysuit.
Re:It is stalled because of the US
by
Opie812
·
· Score: 0, Funny
I just love to see the only _really good_ energy source that is in our future being delayed and delayed because of petty politics.
If we could just figure out how to harness the hot air spewing from politicans we'd all be able to drive electric Hum-vees!
-- I'm not a nerd. Nerds are smart.
Re:They should build it in...
by
Jodka
·
· Score: 2, Funny
"Fusion reactors don't explode. The fusion reaction itself is extremely delicate. If anything goes wrong, it simply stops."
Actually, there is a small likelihood that the fusion reactor goes out of control and creates a growing magnetic vortex which becomes powerful enough to consume an entire city. However, I expect it would be possible to prevent the reaction from going out of control by using an eight-armed non-ferrous mechanical exoskeleton.
Slashdot Mirror
That way, we get two programs in one.
...
Oh, and also, if it goes out of control and creates a small black hole that slowly starts consuming everything, we'll have time to use the bits of the moon that are left to shove the whole mess off into the Sun.
Or something
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Fusion, pfft. I wanna see dark matter power reactors.
Unfortunatly, many brilliant plasma physists are now out of work and have no income in Russia
Which will bring rise to:
Adopt a "Plasma Physicist".
I can see Sally Fields now on tv with pot bellied Russian physicists walking around naked with flys swarming around their heads.
The US has put its fusion program on ice and has created a new form of Cold Fusion!
ba da dum
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Meanwhile, we have a massive fusion plant in the center of the solar system that's been operating maintenance free for eons and we're barely even exploiting it.
Yeah, but safety standards have since been raised, and you couldn't get that design built today. It may not be nearby, but it is completely unshielded, and prolonged exposure to it's radiation is known to cause cancer.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
ITER is stalled over a dispute on where to locate the facility
This reminds me of a passage from of a Woody Allen book I read. Two professors chasing and hitting each other with umbrellas over the campus area in order to settle the dispute on whether the bell marks college end or break begin.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
...that a black hole would consume the sun as well, right? The best thing you could do with a black hole, is to stay the hell away from it. Of course, if you can compress the moon to an object less than 0.05455mm (yes, millimeters) in radius , I think there's some wierd shit going on already...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
> It is obvious that they are not interested in the science and simply want to be able to say "look what we have".
Hmm, and the USA would never ever do that eh?
If you try to put it there but it's too hot, then do it at night.
-- J. Hover, chief stellar engineer, Sirius Sector
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Yes, but it's heavy vodka.
Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
No no no, you guys have it all wrong. George Bush finally saw spiderman 2 and became worried over the possibility of robot terrorist octopus men.
We're using about a two-billionth of the Sun's power. I think that counts as 'barely even exploiting it'.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Like distributed computing, I think distributed power generation would work amazingly well. If there were millions and millions of homes generating power alongside our power plants (nukes, not dirty fossil fuel plants), we could achieve energy independence from foreign nations, reduce fossil fuel dependence, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from oil/coal buring powerplants.
Yes! Millions of automotive fuel cells running on magical fairy juice that simply appears at the millions of generating facilities (garages) distributed willy nilly across the suburbs of our vast land! Without care as to proximity to water resources (for cooling), transportation resources (for fueling), or air quality (ground level emissions - but wait, this is probably magical HYDROGEN fairy juice!).
It's a good thing that the electrical grid is just a big old lake of electrons, where you can take power whenever/however you want, and dump power back on whenever/however you want, without care as to supply and demand and load balancing and transmission limitations. Oh, and better yet, since the magic fairy juice generating plant creates DC power, everyone can have their very own incredibly wasteful DC power inverter so that they can put the power back on the grid in a form that's useful for transmitting electricity for more than about, oh, a mile.
Friendly friend rainbow monkey goodbye hugs to everyone!
you still have to transfer the power back towards consumers on earth, and THAT'S a big problem ....lots of little rechargable batteries.
Need Mercedes parts ?
I think the reality of fusion power is not getting any closer, whereas the dream would seem to have already arrived, taken off it's shoes and asked whats for dinner.
I just hope fusion engineers/scientists are not like computer programmers (me included).
*Boom*
Aaah I see, yep, yep, yep, thought so, no no problem, can we schedule a test for next week? Yep, gimme a minute i'll check the calculations...
*Bigger Boom*
Ooooh, mmmm mmm, yep, no - that's good, we are doing something right, that was definately different, lets hope we don't get a BlackHoleException, yeah, I'd throw a try/catch around that whole nasty business there... *vague pointing*
*fading image of old tv screen switching off*
*smacks head* d'oh! Oh well at least the moon base survived...
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
According to the DHMO FAQ, this lethal substance is responsible for:
Please do your part in warning your friends of this dangerous substance.
Paul Gillingwater
MBA, CISSP, CISM
Here are a few things that I've always wondered about so-called 'free energy' sources:
1. Solar.
We put up solar panels everywhere we possibly could. We get unlimited free energy. After a few years, the temprature of the Earth begins to drop due to the fact that the energy which would have been converted to heat is now used for other things. Even if those things produce heat as a biproduct, some heat will still be lost. We all freeze.
We put solar panels in space and beam the energy to the surface. Exact oppisite problem. The Earth begins to heat up due to extra evergy in the system. We all burn.
2. Wind.
We put up big windmils everywhere. All the birds fly into them. We are all eaten by insect plagues. Even if the insects don't kill us, shifting weather paterns due to disrupted wind system wreak havoc on the planet. We all die.
3. Waves.
Same prob as wind. We either kill off all the fish, or disrupt the ocean's currents to the point that we all die.
4. Geothermal.
Let's take heat from the crust that escapes anyway and use it to drive turbines. Turbines need pressure. Pressure that would have been released naturally is now stored in the crust till peak hours. Pressure in the crust causes massive earthquakes. We all die.
So, here is my question: How do we get the things we need without causing harm? Fussion seems like the only easy answer. There really isn't anything else for us...is there?
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
What makes you think we'll ever have fusion power? Do you honestly think that environmentalists will EVER approve the construction of a power plant that produces high-energy neutrons as a byproduct and can turn into a nuclear bomb in a runaway reaction?
The hurdles for fusion power are not technical, they're social.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
Fusion free energy will just make you more fat and lazy. The horse and oxen will keep you fit and trim. :-)
Score & Karma: SASA: Slashdot Approval Seekers Anonymous
There are not exclusively political motivations here. (And for fuck's sake, how did this get modded +4 Insightful?)
FIRE is *one* fusion research program of dozens of federally funded fusion research programs of all sorts in the US.
As for point 2, "Huh??" FIRE had a $2M/year annual budget. Again, this is but ONE of many, many, many fusion programs in the US. This isn't going to defray anything.
For point 3, now you're just getting wacko. You're implying that it's some huge trick to make people think we're cooperating internationally, but that secretly, the elitist Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rumsfeld/Illuminati conspiracy believes that fusion will only succeed with US involvement, therefore the motivation is CLEARLY to *prevent* it from succeeded, certainly to line their pockets with money from the oil industry.
To you folks who believe this shit routinely: are you fucking serious?
To review: there are MANY fusion research programs in the US, some larger than FIRE. FIRE was just ONE program. We are NOT "abandoning" fusion research. Sheesh. Take off your fucking tinfoil bodysuit.
I just love to see the only _really good_ energy source that is in our future being delayed and delayed because of petty politics.
If we could just figure out how to harness the hot air spewing from politicans we'd all be able to drive electric Hum-vees!
I'm not a nerd. Nerds are smart.
"Fusion reactors don't explode. The fusion reaction itself is extremely delicate. If anything goes wrong, it simply stops."
Actually, there is a small likelihood that the fusion reactor goes out of control and creates a growing magnetic vortex which becomes powerful enough to consume an entire city. However, I expect it would be possible to prevent the reaction from going out of control by using an eight-armed non-ferrous mechanical exoskeleton.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.