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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Laser Fusion -- Coming soon??? [Text/Description Heavy]

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So for a Physics class I'm currently taking I had to pick a topic of energy generation to do a report/presentation on. Of course, even though I knew next to nothing about the topic, I chose fusion via lasers :drool:

My professor was skeptical. Fusion, he said, was far off and especially with lasers is very unlikely to be a viable source of energy (he also kind of wanted us to do something in the "already been done" area). Of course me being the stubborn, laser-happy person I am pressed the issue and finally he relented.

Upon researching this topic, I found things that surprised me incredibly and I thought I might share (and also ask for comments/corrections/anything from people who may happen to know a lot about this subject)! For the record I've only really researched LIFE/NIF (not HiPER) and as such all the following will be about that. Wikipedia was no help--all the information was out of date from the information I got from contact with the facility.

First, we have already created/demonstrated fusion (?!). I didn't know this. By training 192 lasers (over a petawatt total) onto a ~2mm sphere of deuterium and tritium and thereby heating the sphere to close to 10 million degrees Fahrenheit (in less than 20 billionths of a second), NIF created "partial" fusion (this is ~September of last year).
It was called partial because not the entire sphere went through fusion. They did achieve a high energy neutron yield of 300 trillion, which was a world record (apparently). For those who don't know, fusion creates a high energy neutron when deuterium/tritium fuse :)
"Full" fusion, or "ignition," or a self-sustaining reaction, is basically when the whole sphere undergoes fusion (neutron yield of around 10^17). This is difficult partially because the reaction has to do with pressurizing the sphere of fuel via heat/x-rays and therefore all 192 laser beams have to hit the fuel cell simultaneously. Ignition coupled with more efficient lasers can create energy gains of 70-100x.

Second, NIF was recently (a month or two or three ago?) given the green light for high(er) energy tests that may yield "ignition," or a full fusion burn and therefore a way to achieve huge net gains of energy. I contacted NIF and asked a few questions (this one included). I got the answer that the tests will commence soon and *hopefully* "ignition" will be demonstrated this or next year (wow?).

Third, they've been designing a possible power plant for fusion, and I thought the design sounded crazily cool. So, right now, NIF won't achieve net energy gain because the laser system is super inefficient (built in the 1980s..?). It takes too much energy to fire the lasers :p Also, the lasers can fire only 2 or 3 times a day. For the power plant, they need lasers of the same power that can fire 10-20 times a second. Some company (I forgot the name) has already created lasers for this that can do just that (lifetime of 15 years or something for these behemoths).
Now comes the cool part. In this fusion chamber, they need 10-20 fusion reactions per second, and to do this they came up with the following: using a gas gun or similar apparatus, they are planning to launch the fuel spheres across the chamber and have the lasers track and effectively shoot the sphere causing a fusion reaction, and subsequently move to the next one. Crazy??? From preliminary tests they say the system is working well (wow).

The timeline they have:
- Create fusion (done in 2009)
- Demonstrate ignition (planned for this year or the next)
- Assuming ^^^ is achieved, Design/build/test/commercialize a power plant (2020s)

Power plant is the *hard* part. You have to build a pretty huge facility and test it (as it is the first of its kind), figure out how to integrate it with the grid, safety check it, etc. That'll take some time.



What do you guys think?? I thought it was all pretty crazy...

Feel free to post questions. There's a ton of information I've taken in/learned in the past few days and I probably missed a ton!
 
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I did a very short research project into the subject back in 2004. Although it's quite clear you did more research already (I only needed a filler of three paragraphs). Anyway, it's fascinating to see how far the technology has come along. At the time it didn't seem likely that even partial fusion could be achieved.

On a similar note, my first computer used a 333mhz processor. My next cell phone will have dual core 1ghz processor. Insane how fast progress is being made, and the development curve is exponential.
 
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I did a very short research project into the subject back in 2004. Although it's quite clear you did more research already (I only needed a filler of three paragraphs). Anyway, it's fascinating to see how far the technology has come along. At the time it didn't seem likely that even partial fusion could be achieved.

On a similar note, my first computer used a 333mhz processor. My next cell phone will have dual core 1ghz processor. Insane how fast progress is being made, and the development curve is exponential.

Yeah I noticed articles in my research from the early 2000s ('03, '05) where they were basically laughing at it saying fusion wouldn't be achieved for another 20 years at least! Oh how scientists are laughing now! :p hahaha.

It is amazing how fast technology has advanced. Going for the Bionic?
 
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It is amazing how fast technology has advanced. Going for the Bionic?

I still remember reading article in a magazine at the school library about the first 1Ghz processor for personal desktops. Mind you this was after smoking a certain leafy substance in a friends house who lived 1 block away... We found the article to be very :crackup: and the librarian yelled at us for being loud. I guess that's why I still remember it.

Actually I'm still undecided between the bionic and the droid X2. My att contract ends on may 14th, so I have a little time, and might wait for a month or two for the better phone. FYI, i live in northern NJ, about 20 minutes from New York, and ATT service sucks. Can't wait to drop it.

With the Droid X2 it's supposed to be 1.2ghz vs 1ghz in the bionic. Also 512mb of ram in bionic and 768 in the droid x2.

Than there is the big question... 4G. The bionic is definitely going to have 4G, the Droid X2 probably not. Problem is I'm not sure if lack or presence of 4G is good or bad.

The current verizon 4G phone, HTC Thunderbolt, everyone loves except for one crucial detail... battery life. Apparently can be drained in 40 minutes of heavy use. 4G is terrible for battery life, and at least on the thunderdolt there is no option to toggle.

So I'm still undecided. The HTC incredible two will also be coming out sometime soon...

I'm just kind of lost on the whole battery issue. My blackberry bold 9700 set to 2G can survive two days of reasonably heavy use, 1 day with 3G is no problem. From friends so far I haven't heard a single person say that they can go over 1 day not charging. Most say they can't get through the day without a second charger at work:undecided:
 
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I still remember reading article in a magazine at the school library about the first 1Ghz processor for personal desktops. Mind you this was after smoking a certain leafy substance in a friends house who lived 1 block away... We found the article to be very :crackup: and the librarian yelled at us for being loud. I guess that's why I still remember it.

Actually I'm still undecided between the bionic and the droid X2. My att contract ends on may 14th, so I have a little time, and might wait for a month or two for the better phone. FYI, i live in northern NJ, about 20 minutes from New York, and ATT service sucks. Can't wait to drop it.

With the Droid X2 it's supposed to be 1.2ghz vs 1ghz in the bionic. Also 512mb of ram in bionic and 768 in the droid x2.

Than there is the big question... 4G. The bionic is definitely going to have 4G, the Droid X2 probably not. Problem is I'm not sure if lack or presence of 4G is good or bad.

The current verizon 4G phone, HTC Thunderbolt, everyone loves except for one crucial detail... battery life. Apparently can be drained in 40 minutes of heavy use. 4G is terrible for battery life, and at least on the thunderdolt there is no option to toggle.

So I'm still undecided. The HTC incredible two will also be coming out sometime soon...

I'm just kind of lost on the whole battery issue. My blackberry bold 9700 set to 2G can survive two days of reasonably heavy use, 1 day with 3G is no problem. From friends so far I haven't heard a single person say that they can go over 1 day not charging. Most say they can't get through the day without a second charger at work:undecided:

Well perhaps I may offer some advice ;)

I'd go most likely with the Bionic over the X2. I would also go with the Thunderbolt over the Bionic. I actually have the Thunderbolt right now. I love it. The key is is if you root it you can get rid of a lot of the bloatware and undervolt (and even overclock) the processor. I have mine running at 1.92GHz and the battery lasts all day with pretty moderate use (I'm a 19 year old college student so you can imagine how much I use my phone). I've heard of people who leave it at stock speed (1GHz) and drastically undervolt the processor and get more than a day's life of heavy use out of it.

The Thunderbolt actually outperforms the Bionic. The only thing the Bionic has over the TB is battery life (supposedly) and multi-tasking ability. The TB is actually faster (and has more RAM).

I have also heard that if you get the extended battery for the TB and a protective case for the TB you can cut a square out of the back of the case and the extended battery doesn't stick out very much. That battery will get you like 4 days of battery life too (it's massive--I don't like it).

Technology ;)
 
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Nice. I hadn't really considered over or under clocking. So far aside from my overclocking has been limited strictly to PC, but it goes without saying that I will root whatever phone I get.

I don't live in a 4G area so 4G is really not a priority. The big difference I'm seeing though is in processor and ram. Hopefully these phones come out this or next month though, than I'll be able to see more reviews.

A stable overclock to almost double stock speed is rather impressive.

Thanks for the info, I'm gonna mull it over for a while. Still almost a month left on contract.
 
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@HIMNL9

We might need them... my computer now has a 1400W PSU.

EDIT: Just clicked the link. Thought you were referring to power supply/battery/fusion. I'll keep my arms thank you very much:)they are still more advanced than any comparable tech.
 
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The June issue of Popular Mechanics had a pretty interesting article on fusion and energy creation using lasers. You can probably find it online, the title was: "Is fusion finally for real?"
 

HIMNL9

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Uhm, as far as i've heard times ago, Popular Mechanics magazine, in the '40, published an article about DYI homemade nuclear generator ..... wondering why, in the internet era of informations, that article cannot be found, now :eg:
 

rhd

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Check out something called ITER. The concept renderings are phenomenal, and I think they have already started construction in France. It has been a few years since I've tracked this.

Regarding phones, I'm going with the EVO 3D:
YouTube - ‪HTC EVO 3D - First Look‬‏

In Canada, our 3G tends to run at 7 megabit, so I'm not as interested in 4G.
 

rhd

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Check out something called ITER. The concept renderings are phenomenal, and I think they have already started construction in France. It has been a few years since I've tracked this.

Regarding phones, I'm going with the EVO 3D:
YouTube - ‪HTC EVO 3D - First Look‬‏


In Canada, our 3G tends to run at 7 megabit, so I'm not as interested in 4G yet.
 
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Check out something called ITER. The concept renderings are phenomenal, and I think they have already started construction in France. It has been a few years since I've tracked this.

Regarding phones, I'm going with the EVO 3D:
YouTube - ‪HTC EVO 3D - First Look‬‏


In Canada, our 3G tends to run at 7 megabit, so I'm not as interested in 4G yet.

NIF is the furthest along in testing. ITER is way behind in comparison ;) but they are all chasing the same goal.. I don't get why they don't all just collaborate.. Silly scientists.

EVO 3D looks cool. I've fallen in love with my Thunderbolt though. I'm installing Ubuntu on it as we speak :p hahaha. My 3G speeds are in the neighborhood of 3 megabits but 4G speeds have gotten from 15 to 20... insanity...
 
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Actually I went with the samsung epic. Call me old fashioned but after years of blackberries I like having a keyboard. Can't complain about the phone though. I'll give it a year and upgrade to something with a larger screen/no keyboard after that.
 

rhd

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I have both a BlackBerry (for work) and a Samsung Galaxy S Android (for real life)

I can tell you from experience that typing on an on-screen keyboard like Swype for Android, is 2 to 3 times faster than typing on a BlackBerry hardware keyboard.

It's not just that I have more experience with one over the other either. I've had my Galaxy S Android for six (6) months, and the same 2x to 3x faster speed holds up against other people who've had BlackBerries for 7 or 8 years. And if hand them the Galaxy S Android Swype keyboard and show them how it works, they can generally type faster than on their BlackBerries within a few minutes.
 




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