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Can World's Largest Laser Zap Earth's Energy Woes?
newviewmedia.com writes "Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory plan on using a laser the size of three football fields to set off a nuclear reaction so intense that it will make a star bloom on the surface of the Earth. If they're successful, the scientists hope to solve the global energy crisis by harnessing the energy generated by the mini-star."
Quote: We have a very high confidence that we will be able to ignite the target within the next two years...
So basically it'll never happen. Haven't they been saying this for the last 20 years?
The big problems concern engineering -- how to turn a piece of very expensive scientific equipment into a cost-effective and reliable power station. The challenges are huge, and not just for inertially-confined fusion, but magnetically confined fusion as well.
I'm 30 and I'm not even sure I'll be alive to see a working fusion power plant.
Luckily enough, we've got plenty of infrastructure dedicated to transmitting power from generators to our cities already. It's not like you can fit a coal fired plant in your back yard, either...
how is powering an entire city not worth 3 football fields of real estate?
I would not be surprised if that is not already in the ballpark of what is being used.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
The most technical power plants in the world still use steam powered turbines. When and who is going to get us a way to convert directly to power?
Offtopic!? I mention a related fusion power project and get modded "offtopic". Someone mention a related way of making things going kaboon and get modded "interesting". Ohh, insane world.
So they make more energy by not turning it on. Great.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
"It will take at least another 20 years, with adequate funding, to develop a continuous fusion reaction that
could heat water, create steam and turn generators at a commercial fusion power plant, she said."
See the problem now?
Watch this Heartland Institute video
How about how the one guy was bitten by a radioactive spider and gained spider powers?
"So to replace the fuel based primary energy Germany must build 95 nuclear plants."
Or four reactors, 24 times as powerful.
How many fossil fuel plants do you think they're running now to produce the rest of their power? A few hundred?
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
"The world needs to employ existing fixes for climate change rather than looking for a technological silver bullet that will prove to be too expensive for commercial energy production anyway"
Actually, the world really ought to be doing both. I'm not implying the existence of a "silver bullet" but any renewable energy source (especially one as fundamental as solar fusion) is probably a worthwhile endeavor. Just because it isn't immediately commercially viable doesn't mean we can't still benefit from it.
"Before criticizing someone, first walk a mile in his shoes. Then, you'll be a mile away... and you'll have his shoes."
TFA states that you just get tritium from seawater, which is wildly incorrect. Tritium is synthetic, only the deuterium can be had from seawater.
1. You actually found these jokes funny in the first place.
2. You impression of the humor changes just because you learned about the guys religious/political stance.
3. You even care what his religious/political stance of an actor is?
You are one really petty person.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
To be fair, a random bunch of dirt doesn't make much heat, but put a few million (billion?) cubic miles of the stuff together, and you get a molten core, a thin layer of solidified crust penetrated with volcanos, etc.
When you go read the material at the NIF web site, there seem to be a lot of problems that haven't got past the "conceptual design" stage:
In some ways, it seems like ignition is one of the more minor problems they have to solve.