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Piston-Powered Nuclear Fusion

Posted by Soulskill on from the tried-everything-else dept.

katarn writes "General Fusion is a startup proposing they can create commercially viable fusion using acoustic shock waves, triggered by 220 precisely controlled pneumatic pistons. Their approach is based on a US Naval research concept called 'Linus' and old research done by General Atomics. They feel we now have the high-speed, digital processing capable of pulling off this feat, where decades ago the technology was not available. I think we can hold off on the 'vaporware' claims for a bit; everyone is aware of the horrible track record for turning fusion concepts into reality, but they don't claim to be the first with the idea or that there are not substantial challenges in the way. If nothing else, it is a fascinating concept." Los Alamos National Laboratory has further details on this type of fusion, and longtime LANL researcher Ronald Kirkpatrick did an external assessment (PDF) of General Fusion's plans. Popular Science had a lengthy story about the company a while back. The reason they're back in the headlines now is that they've secured enough funding to begin work on a prototype reactor.

5 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. In other news... by binarylarry · · Score: 4, Funny

    Colonel Fission is pissed and has vowed to crush General Fusion's puny attempts at creating nuclear energy!

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    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  2. Code Name: Penuts by Cidolfas · · Score: 4, Funny

    The research team's other concept, which created fusion by enticing atoms with footballs only to pull them all away at the last second, was named 'Lucy'.

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    I am become /dev/null, destroyer of data.
  3. I've got an idea by ClosedSource · · Score: 5, Funny

    You could attach four smart mechanical arms to someone's brain stem (with an inhibitor chip of course). Those extra arms could make the millisecond adjustments to keep the instabilities in check. I have to admit this sounds familiar ...

  4. Fantastic Fiction by robbiedo · · Score: 3, Funny

    "General Atomics" Sounds like a company from a 1950's Robert Heinlein novel.

  5. New Idea? by Linker3000 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe we should just move all companies and their fusion experiments to one, single 'fusion science park', with each building next to each other in a ring. We then use large bulldozers to smash all the buildings towards the centre at the same time and see what happens?

    It's an idea? No?

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    AT&ROFLMAO