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National Ignition Facility Fires 192-Beam Pulse
An anonymous reader writes "The construction and test firing of the National Ignition Facility have been completed. NIF was designed as the first facility ever to achieve self-sustaining nuclear fusion and, in particular, to reach the point of ignition in which more energy is generated from the reaction than went into creating it. While the recent 192-beam pulse only produced 80 kilojoules worth of energy, all signs point to NIF being able to reach an order of magnitude higher (PDF) than that in the coming year."
Because energy is a useless fiat commodity, while you can eat cold, hard dollar bills.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Enough of all this shark-jumping! Sharks have feelings, too!
Actually I'm a loan shark, but we're all brothers.
Hey, I saw that Star Trek episode too.
I guess we are still on track for global annihilation by 2011/2012, between this bad boy, ITER, and the Large Hadron Collider, it is practically guaranteed!
Your computer is infected with the Adobe virus. A format and reinstall is required to completely eliminate it.
Be relentless!
I mean it's hard enough for a beam pulse find work after it's been fired let alone 192 of them.
Hey. They said that its for "National Security" and "Energy for the Future".
They never said Who's future, and how much energy they're going to get all at once.
I didn't see anything in the article about Helium removal. I thought that was the biggest remaining problem with nuclear fusion -- removing the Helium-4 "waste" from the reaction before the Helium "poisons" it and shuts down. Someone please correct me. I'm sure that's not entirely accurate.
They've already started on an adjoining balloon factory. If they can break even on the energy production the Helium balloon animals sales will drive them into profits.
massive land use
yes, we have to build solar panels on the ground, not on roofs.
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
If you're high, don't try telling jokes to sober people.
I'm thinking all sorts of great things can come from this. Uber cheap electricity, plug in hybrids to end the fuel crisis, shutting down coal/oil electricity plants, ion drives...there are lots of applications.
And the USA can stop invading oil producing nations and can start going after berrylium sources. Expect to see Utah added to the axis of evil really soon now!
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!"
Actually has a practical purpose.
No threat of black holes destroying the Earth.
Didn't take years of design and construction, a crew of thousands, massive engineering, a huge staff, and a subterranean circle beneath miles of peaceful countryside.
Didn't destroy itself within a week of startup.
Oh nooooes!
Here's an exclusive photo of the test facility!