Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Alternative to Tokamak Fusion Reactor

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the fun-with-government-spending dept.

Sterling D. Allan writes to tell us OpenSourceEnergy is reporting on a "far more feasible and profoundly less expensive approach to hot fusion". Inventor Eric Lerner's focus fusion process uses hydrogen and boron to combine into helium which gives off tremendous energy with a very small material requirement. Lerner's project apparently only requires a few million in capital investment which is a far cry from the $10 billion being spent on the Tokamak fusion project.

8 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads ... by notpaul · · Score: 5, Funny

    From TFA:

    "The Dense Plasma Focus device is roughly the size of a coffee can."

    Size of a *coffee* can ... hmmm ... coffee ... coffee-makers ... *Mister* Coffee ...

    MR. FUSION!

    Yes! FINALLY!

    --
    See you space cowboy ...
  2. Skeptical.... by Duncan3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cheap, no long term radiation, efficient direct to electricity, sounds like everything we've ever dreamed of...

    And yet... not assasinated by the oil industry...

    So it must not actually work. Q.E.D.

    --
    - Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
  3. I'm suspicious by evil+agent · · Score: 4, Funny
    As for possible accidents with the reactor, there is "not really anything that could go wrong," and, because of the way the reaction stops immediately, "there is [no possibility] for runaway." Lerner affirms, "It's 100% safe."

    Sounds like something Mr. Burns would say.

    --
    End transmission.
  4. Byproduct is Helium. Hmmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny
    focus fusion technology in which hydrogen and boron combine into helium

    I want one of these in my car so I can suck the exhaust fumes and talk like Mickey Mouse.

  5. Wow. They'll save the earth. by DieByWire · · Score: 2, Funny
    Wow. It even has the support of the 'Integrity Research Institute,' and all the resources of erols.com behind their website.
    Integrity Research Institute (IRI) is a non-profit corporation dedicated to helping establish integrity in scientific research, primarily regarding the physics of energy, whether it is in the technical, human health, or environmental area.

    Too bad NASA's funding funding for him dried up. What do they know about physics, any way?

    --
    Never shake hands with a man you meet in a fertility clinic.
  6. Send in the Clowns! by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 2, Funny
    far more feasible and profoundly less expensive approach to hot fusion

    I recall when Cold Fusion was actually considered a possibility for essentially limitless clean energy that a bunch of environmentalist clowns arrived on the scene proclaiming that cheap clean energy would be the worst thing that could possibly happen. That, my Gawd, with cheap clean energy we would just end up with more people using up even more of the planet even faster. While my memory may have faded over time, a prominent name I believe was at the forefront of these claims at the time was Jeremy Rifkin.

    I certainly expect their reappearance any time now.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  7. Re:Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads .. by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm not smart enough to explain it, but I can give you some examples that show it's not totally insane. The inside of a CRT is something like 100,000F. But it doesn't melt the glass and then 3 nanoseconds later the faces of everyone watching it.

  8. Re:Of Plasmaks and Prizes by Sparr0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    calling "whack jobs" people who have done real work

    no one ever called you a person who has done real work.