Holy grail of all holy grail, at the door step?

[botsapper]

"...more energy came out of the fuel core than what went in it!" Feel free to move the thread, when Mr. Nye approves...the evidence.

Fusion energy milestone reported by California scientists - The Washington Post

[user removed]

Yes but they fudged it with the statement that only about 1% of the energy directed to the fuel was utilized, so they have a long way to go to a self sustaining reaction that is controllable, with recoverable energy.

It only needed to be over 1% of the consumed energy to justify the claim which is a long way from a net producer of energy.

I think they have predicted a battery breakthrough longer than I have been alive. It just feeds scepticism. I believe we will see fusion energy generation, but probably not in my lifetime.

regards
Mech

[RustyLugNut]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Yes but they fudged it with the statement that only about 1% of the energy directed to the fuel was utilized, so they have a long way to go to a self sustaining reaction that is controllable, with recoverable energy.

It only needed to be over 1% of the consumed energy to justify the claim which is a long way from a net producer of energy.

I think they have predicted a battery breakthrough longer than I have been alive. It just feeds scepticism. I believe we will see fusion energy generation, but probably not in my lifetime.

regards
Mech

This, by definition, is a laboratory success. It is still a long way from practical fusion and researchers admit this. However, steps such as this are needed to understand the path to practicality.

This method ( implosion ignition ) along with plasma heating are prohibitively expensive. But the understanding may yield a method not yet perused. Yes, it may not happen in our lifetimes, but then again, we may find something that accelerates the practicality.

[ChazInMT]

I've got a pretty good sense of things, I try to break things down into simple elements in order to gain perspective on size relationships and scale. It is one thing to say the Earth is 93 Million miles from the Sun, quite another to place a bead smaller than a BB 78 feet from a bowling ball and have that be a model of the Earth Sun relationship. Then to think at that scale the Earth only moves 3/4 inch per hour.

Anyhow, the amazing thing about atoms that most people fail to grasp is that the nuclei of the atom is insanely small, an aircraft carrier shrinks down to a speck smaller than a Millimeter cubed when only the protons and neutrons of it are lumped together without the space in between the electron shells. When you grasp this, you realize that trying to fuse nucleus's together is an incredibly difficult thing to do in a "Controlled" fashion.

Another way to look at it, you want to smash ping pong balls together, and they're 4 miles apart from each other, and they really don't like to be smooshed together. Proceed.

Nuclear Fusion, The power source that has been 20 years away from practical application for 65 years.

[RustyLugNut]

Originally Posted by ChazInMT

I've got a pretty good sense of things, I try to break things down into simple elements in order to gain perspective on size relationships and scale. It is one thing to say the Earth is 93 Million miles from the Sun, quite another to place a bead smaller than a BB 78 feet from a bowling ball and have that be a model of the Earth Sun relationship. Then to think at that scale the Earth only moves 3/4 inch per hour.

Anyhow, the amazing thing about atoms that most people fail to grasp is that the nuclei of the atom is insanely small, an aircraft carrier shrinks down to a speck smaller than a Millimeter cubed when only the protons and neutrons of it are lumped together without the space in between the electron shells. When you grasp this, you realize that trying to fuse nucleus's together is an incredibly difficult thing to do in a "Controlled" fashion.

Another way to look at it, you want to smash ping pong balls together, and they're 4 miles apart from each other, and they really don't like to be smooshed together. Proceed.

Nuclear Fusion, The power source that has been 20 years away from practical application for 65 years.

. . . does not make it impossible.

The theories are sound. It is just that the technical hurdles are immense. But, often with greater understanding comes enlightenment and the ability to find paths around the problems.

The laser targeting has improved to the point that the implosion action is now yielding more energy than the impacting laser beams. This is significant even if it is not practical. Only a small fraction of a percent of the fuel is being fused. With better implosion accuracy will come greater production of fusion and greater energy output. That is a scientific fact. Better implosion control is just engineering.

[cowmeat]

This technology has existed since 1996, so why is it just now surfacing?
Here is a link to the specs:

Chain Reaction (1996) - IMDb

[cowmeat]

This technology has existed since 1996, so why is it just now surfacing?
Here is a link to the specs:

Chain Reaction (1996) - IMDb