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Two-Laser Boron Fusion Lights the Way To Radiation-Free Energy
ananyo writes "Fusion unleashes vast amounts of energy that might one day be used to power giant electrical grids. But the laboratory systems that seem most promising produce radiation in the form of fast-moving neutrons, and these present a health hazard that requires heavy shielding and even degrades the walls of the fusion reactor. Physicists have now produced fusion at an accelerated rate in the laboratory without generating harmful neutrons (abstract). A team led by Christine Labaune, research director of the CNRS Laboratory for the Use of Intense Lasers at the Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau, France, used a two-laser system to fuse protons and boron-11 nuclei. One laser created a short-lived plasma, or highly ionized gas of boron nuclei, by heating boron atoms; the other laser generated a beam of protons that smashed into the boron nuclei, releasing slow-moving helium particles but no neutrons. Previous laser experiments that generated boron fusion aimed the laser at a boron target to initiate the reaction. In the new experiment, the laser-generated proton beam produces a tenfold increase of boron fusion because protons and boron nuclei are instead collided together directly."
Hooray! Fusion power is now only 20 years in the future!
They're planning to build the first reactor in Brazil. It's the country of the future, you know.
Too bad we can't get fusion energy from morons instead, we would have unlimited energy...
I can just imagine the Mad Max-style wars of the future when Boron is scarce and armies of scientists with makeshift weapons battle: should the boron go to the fusion reactors, or to make Pyrex glassware? Two scientists enter, one scientist leaves (with borax).
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
No. It has nothing to do with heavy medium half-life isotopes.
They prefer to be called "somewhat big boned semi-long lived isotopes", you insensitive clod!
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
No but we get some confusion energy.
We're talking mechs powered by mini two-laser fusion reactors blasting each other with plasma rifles and missile volleys to weaken the energy shield around the Borax mine's defenses.
It ain't called Death Valley for nothing... now that's a forward thinking name.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That doesn't keep you from going on a nice drive with your sweetie
To be fair, it's fairly difficult to drive one handed.
Too bad we can't get fusion energy from morons instead, we would have unlimited energy...
Scientists have tried moron-moron fusion, but it simply takes more energy to fuse two morons than the reaction produces. Worse, moron fusion by-products are inherently unstable and result in dangerous moronic radiation. There is no known shielding that can prevent moronic radiation from escaping into the environment. At best, you can only hope to slow it down. But eventually, it finds a way to break out of even the most solid, fool-proof containment.
If your unfamiliar with what moronic radiation is capable of, there are some well-known cases. These days though we have better equipment and facilities to ascertain and study this form of radiation. In fact, there is an ongoing experiment at the Washington, D.C's Large Moron Collider inside the Capitol Building Research Facility. There they often collide long lived moronic particles called Senators and short lived moronic particles called Representatives, producing all kinds of particles ranging from the softer ignorance particles to the elusive yet massive stupid particles.
The unique rotunda design of the top shield was supposed to contain reactions and radiation from the moronic collisions. Unfortunately it seems that despite their best efforts moronic radiation still escapes into the environment.
Some scientists have apparently found a way to at least channel and control the radiation. The research group at the Fox Institute of Truth, for example, has found that they can channel the moronic radiation from the LMC by converting it into electromagnetic radiation in the television spectrum where it harmlessly dissipates into the environment.
However, new research indicates moronic radiation is not so easily defeated. A growing body of research shows that even though you convert moronic radiation into another form, it still retains it's dangerous properties. This hints at deeper mysteries behind the nature of moronic energy.
~X~