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Thermonuclear Reactor To Use Coconut Shells
destinyland writes "A key component of a $10 billion nuclear fusion plant is vintage 2002 Indonesian coconut-shell charcoal. After a 20-year search, German researchers discovered that the coconut-shell charcoal is the best medium for 'adsorbing' waste byproducts sucked out of the thermonuclear reactor's vacuum chamber. In what will be the first fusion power facility that's commercially viable, magnetic fields will heat hydrogen isotopes to over 150 million degrees Centigrade. (Essentially, the super-hot plasma creates artificial stars.) As the article points out, 'It's not quite a Starship warp drive, but it does harness the power of the sun.'"
It's a fusion reaction. Just say that. No stars here, no power from the sun. Nuclear fusion.
Floating face-down in a river of regret...and thoughts of you...
Any editor discussing technology who still feels the need to put the word adsorb into quotes, as though it's not a legitimate English term, should be fired. If you're afraid your audience won't understand, then insert a sidebar on the mechanics of adsorption; don't act as though it's a term out of sci-fi.
If that were the case they'd be popping up all over. This place will never operate in the black. Not saying it isn't a starting point and shouldn't be done, but lets not sell it for something it isn't.
It's so freaking cool that there's going to be something man-made that will reach temperatures similar to the core of the sun. It's just... too cool.
Oh, the irony.
You can't take the sky from me...
You linked from Slashdot to TVTropes? How do you expect me to get any work done today?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!