Laser Fusion?

[AshtonBlack]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8485669.stm

I read about this technique recently and as the above article states, I thought it was a non-starter, but it could happen!
Very very interesting.

[Clinton Huxley]

You don't mean we could have viable, controlled, laser fusion reactors within 50 years?

I'll believe it when I see it.

[JimC]

I've gone cold on the whole idea...

[devogue]

They should be concentrating on making laser guns.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8485669.stm

I read about this technique recently and as the above article states, I thought it was a non-starter, but it could happen!
Very very interesting.

Within a year, they are saying. Of course, once they make it do something, they then need to make it do that something for long enough and stably enough to make a commercially viable source of power. Still - it's looking promising, if only from a pure scientific curiosity POV.

[lofuji]

The key extract is here:

Before those experiments can even begin, however, the target chamber must be prepared with shields that can block the copious neutrons that a fusion reaction would produce.

As I understand it, what is really required is work on lithium-to-beryllium fusion, which doesn't produce all these surplus neutrons. However, that requires an ignition temperature of 70 million degrees, as opposed to 20 million degrees for hydrogen-to-helium fusion.

One good thing I noted from this report: they've finally got plasma physicists on board. A lot of the previous research into fusion has been conducted by particle physicists, who tend to have little or no idea how plasmas behave. Anyway, I don't expect to see commercial fusion reactors in my lifetime, although I'd love to be proved wrong.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The key extract is here:

Before those experiments can even begin, however, the target chamber must be prepared with shields that can block the copious neutrons that a fusion reaction would produce.

As I understand it, what is really required is work on lithium-to-beryllium fusion, which doesn't produce all these surplus neutrons. However, that requires an ignition temperature of 70 million degrees, as opposed to 20 million degrees for hydrogen-to-helium fusion.

One good thing I noted from this report: they've finally got plasma physicists on board. A lot of the previous research into fusion has been conducted by particle physicists, who tend to have little or no idea how plasmas behave. Anyway, I don't expect to see commercial fusion reactors in my lifetime, although I'd love to be proved wrong.

This idea will take off for one good reason. Capital will be needed to build the plants, so there's money to be made. As the source will be controlled by the money people, unlike, say, solar, it will be attractive to the big corporations. So we'll wind up with clean energy that is still in the hands of the moguls.

[Trolldor]

Just make sure you don't have a storm trooper at the controls.

[Feck]

My dad used to put Zeta etc back together when the plasma hit the super cooled coils ......that would have been fun to see in high speed HD