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Z Machine Advances Fusion Race

Posted by kdawson on from the collaborating-with-Siberians dept.

Sandia Labs has announced a new milestone in Linear Transformer Driver technology that aims to solve one of the biggest obstacles to practical fusion reactors. Getting the current needed to "spark" a burst of fusion is doable; getting a constant series of sparks going to create a continuous chain of fusion bursts has never been achieved. The LTD, which allows the Sandia Z machine to fire once every 10.2 seconds, makes it look achievable. The press release (which has been picked up in a few places, but with no further analysis) says that practical fusion power could now be 20 years off.

15 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. 20 years off? by AvitarX · · Score: 4, Funny

    Weren't we closer 30 years ago?

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    1. Re:20 years off? by tom17 · · Score: 5, Funny

      *1-2 gigawatts is a pretty big reactor today. You mean 1.21, right?

    2. Re:20 years off? by Firethorn · · Score: 2, Funny

      Naw, that'd be 1.21 jigawatts.

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    3. Re:20 years off? by rumblin'rabbit · · Score: 4, Funny

      You're telling this to programmers? The ones who coined the phrase "it's 90% done and always will be"? The ones who invented the software crisis?

    4. Re:20 years off? by MightyYar · · Score: 2, Funny

      Slashdot isn't the same now that Don Imus posts on here anonymously in his ample free time.

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    5. Re:20 years off? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      How much energy does it take to build a railroad.
      5000 nigger watts

    6. Re:20 years off? by Gilmoure · · Score: 4, Funny

      Grue is in the details?

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  2. 20 years! by mdsolar · · Score: 1, Funny

    And to think they said it would be forty years off twenty years ago!

  3. And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon by Etherwalk · · Score: 4, Funny

    > says that practical fusion power could now be 20 years off.

    Twenty years off what? And are they light years or dog years?

  4. In Siberia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Cold fuses you!

  5. Z-Machine? by Reverend528 · · Score: 4, Funny
    The horizon is lost in the glare of morning upon the Great Sea. You shield your eyes to sweep the shore below, where a village lies nestled beside a quiet cove.

    A stunted oak tree shades the inland road.

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    Badass Resumes
    1. Re:Z-Machine? by moosesocks · · Score: 4, Funny

      Possible exits are North, South, or Dennis.

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    2. Re:Z-Machine? by syntaxglitch · · Score: 4, Funny

      > eat grue You help yourself to a nice grue steak. It doesn't look very appealing--perhaps you should turn out the lights before eating it.

      > turn off light

      It is very dark. You are now likelier to eat a grue.

      > eat grue

      You hungrily devour the grue. You suddenly feel as if you are in Soviet Russia.
  6. Re:And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wa by ivan256 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually, measured in light years, practical fusion is only 1.58e-5 light years away.

  7. Constant of nature by J.R.+Random · · Score: 2, Funny

    Practical fusion power is always 20 years from the present. That was true 40 years ago, it is true today, and will be true 40 years from now. This is a little known consequence of general relativity.