Very Cool: Fusion Energy

triniwasp · Post by **triniwasp** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:08 am

Neat article here:Link

In the movie "Spiderman II," the web-slinging hero stops the creation of a tritium-fueled laser fusion machine. Doctor Octopus's theory was right, but his machine was too small. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California are building their own laser fusion machine that is 10 stories tall, 400 feet long and fueled with tritium (and deuterium).
The goal of the project, known as the National Ignition Facility (NIF), is to create such intense heat and pressure that the fuel, both isotopes of the element hydrogen, will fuse together to form helium.

Project Website: https://lasers.llnl.gov/

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:00 pm

I've been keeping an eye on laser induced fusion projects, IMO, its the future of energy, they can create it now, but only for short bursts, and with not much efficiency, not any real returns on energy. One day we'll master it though, and then energy concerns won't be a concern.

jasonb31 · Post by **jasonb31** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:21 pm

Brent wrote:I've been keeping an eye on laser induced fusion projects, IMO, its the future of energy, they can create it now, but only for short bursts, and with not much efficiency, not any real returns on energy. One day we'll master it though, and then energy concerns won't be a concern.

Me too and its great but I'm sure Congress or the environmentalist will screw it up for the rest of us somehow.

T Boone Pickens should be shot for making that stupid commercial about the Green way to make power, Saying that we cant pump our way out of our problems then to come out later on the news networks and say well we need to pump more oil in the mean time.

Solar, Wind, Geothermal and the rest of the very clean power sources only can account for one percent of the power we need today. It will take one hundred years to get clean energy so we need to pump oil, Natural gas and dig more coal and Shale oil to provide the energy that we need. We supply seventy something billion BTUs of our own power when we are currently using 115 billion. We have the reserves and capability to supply 200 billion BTUs if they would ban the environmental lobby from Congress and do the right thing for this country.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:47 am

jasonb31 wrote: Solar, Wind, Geothermal and the rest of the very clean power sources only can account for one percent of the power we need today. It will take one hundred years to get clean energy so we need to pump oil, Natural gas and dig more coal and Shale oil to provide the energy that we need. We supply seventy something billion BTUs of our own power when we are currently using 115 billion. We have the reserves and capability to supply 200 billion BTUs if they would ban the environmental lobby from Congress and do the right thing for this country.

Where are you getting your figures from?

You can design a house so efficient it'll put energy back into the grid.

jasonb31 · Post by **jasonb31** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:59 am

Humboldt wrote:Where are you getting your figures from?

You can design a house so efficient it'll put energy back into the grid.

A congressmen from Iowa I think, He had a nice pie chart that he was showing congress the other night. I saw it on C-span. That pie chart was very good because it had one inside the other. One showed what we use in what form and the other showed what we produce in what form.

He had to get it from the Department of Energy. Nancy Pelosi also changed the power plant that provides the power to the congressional buildings to run off of Natural gas when it was running on coal. That change was horrible because coal is more efficient in that job and she had to get energy subsidies vouchers to do it. She took them from a experimental clean power plant in Iowa that then had to be canceled. Ignorance is killing our nation.

I think we have enough natural gas to feed every car, Truck and house in this country for the next two hundred years so why the heck are they not doing something like that.

Shagster · Post by **Shagster** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:15 pm

Z-Pinch is another type of fusion power in research...

Tokamak based fusion is the way to go for now...it is progressing faster than computers are. Still, we are looking at about 50 years before that is replaced.

Between now and then we will start seeing a lot of new nuclear plants springing up. Then about 20 years from now the gen4 designs will start being built.

OSULLY · Post by **OSULLY** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:03 pm

Someone needs to clean the mold off that thing. PS: I'm enjoying the thread. I've been out of date on the subject.

Spammy · Post by **Spammy** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:05 pm

Thanks for the screensaver Shag.

jasonb31 · Post by **jasonb31** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:15 pm

Shagster wrote:Z-Pinch is another type of fusion power in research...

Tokamak based fusion is the way to go for now...it is progressing faster than computers are. Still, we are looking at about 50 years before that is replaced.

Between now and then we will start seeing a lot of new nuclear plants springing up. Then about 20 years from now the gen4 designs will start being built.

Z-Pinch is great and I hope they can get one running good but this guy has beat them to the punch and I think someone like Bill Gates or his former partner should jump all over this. This beats Tokamak already.

http://pesn.com/2005/11/02/9600199_Focus_Fusion/