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Thermonuclear Reactor To Use Coconut Shells

Posted by samzenpus on from the Gilligan-approved dept.

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.'"

5 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Use Coconut Shells? by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Like a BRA!?

    --
    "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
    1. Re:Use Coconut Shells? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Look At My Hearse (A GOMH Tribute)

      http://lookatmyhearse.googlepages.com/index.html

  2. Fusion == boom? by commodore64_love · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Read Robert Heinlein's "Blowups Happen".

    BTW I love coconut.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  3. Old News... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    RTFA... it refers back to a NewScientist story from 2 weeks ago.

    Nothing fresh here, drive through!

  4. Wow, so they finally split the coconut atom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    And I was impressed when that Australian split the beer atom.