Fusion Ignition Milestone Acheived

[Rickendiver 6]

Practical fusion energy is still a long ways off, but this is a significant accomplishment.
https://www.llnl.gov/news/national-ignition-facility-achieves-fusion-ignition

[Coreece 189]

I really don't care much for how this particular article is written. It's basically somewhat of a self congratulatory political puff piece that doesn't even talk much about the actual science behind the acheivment.

1. This tech is the result of over 60 years of research and deleopment, yet the first couple of paragraphs are going on about Biden's goal of net-zero carbon and the Biden-Harris Admin's commitment to combatting climate change, etc.

2. If the democrats had their way back in the mid 90s, it's likely none of this would've even been possible due to their introducing a bill designed specifically to prohibit funding for the construction/operation of the NIF or any other facility that uses inertial confinement fusion. 

3.People can go on about climate change this and climate change that, but this is more of a proof of concept and any practical commercial application is still about 30+ years out, and even then it's more likley to come by way of magnetically confined fusion rather than inertial.

4. In addition to the self congratulatory tone and comments about net zero and combatting climate change, the article compares the process to those "inside exploding nuclear weapons," lmao.  I mean wtf, are these writers even capable of writing something more palatable that appeals to the general populus of the U.S?   These people continually have to use unecessary buzzwords that just turns people off and are more susepible to division and pushback.

 

Anyway, I appreciate the effort and update, but here are some articles linked below that are more objective/infomative are more suitable for Bonfire (and socitey in general for that matter.)

https://www.cnet.com/science/major-energy-breakthrough-milestone-achieved-in-us-fusion-experiment/

https://www.cnet.com/science/fusion-energy-had-a-big-breakthrough-what-it-really-means/

[Rickendiver 6]

FWIW, I did not particularly like the way the article was written, either. I was more focused on the accomplishment from my alma mater.

Did not intend this to become a political grenade.  Mods, please move this to Speakers Corner, if appropriate.

[wmw999 2,116]

It's mostly staying on the science -- let's keep it there.

Wendy P.

[Rickendiver 6]

The essential mission of the National Ignition Facility is to study the physics of fusion as part the stockpile stewardship program that replaced the underground nuclear testing program at Nevada Test Site. Since the last US test was conducted in 1992, and we no longer have that capability, the success of NIF is critical to ensuring the safety of our nuclear arsenal.  But it also is used for much, much more- to enable further understanding of our universe and for continued research into fusion reactor power development. This link is more explanatory, (and less blatantly pandering for congressional funding)

https://lasers.llnl.gov/about/what-is-nif

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Rickendiver

[wolfriverjoe 1,340]

It's an amazing and potentially 'world changing' accomplishment.

But it's only the first step.

They've only done it once.

While the energy put into the reaction was less than the energy generated, the energy required to power the lasers and all the other ancillary equipment was far more than the energy generated. 

It was fairly small scale. To generate significant amounts of energy, they'll have to find a way to make it bigger.

And yes, the 'article' is far more a 'patting themselves on the back' press release than an actual 'news article'. 

But for this sort of thing, that's where it starts. 

The Manhattan Project attained the first sustained nuclear (fission) reaction. 

https://news.uchicago.edu/explainer/first-nuclear-reactor-explained#:~:text=At 3%3A53 p.m.%2C they,wrapper of the empty bottle.

As noted in the article, it took 9 years for them to figure out how to generate electricity from nuclear fission. 

First they have to do it again.
Then they have to scale it up and make the 'preliminary' stuff more efficient.

There's a ton of things they have to figure out, and some of them may not be achievable. 

In any case, I doubt we'll see fusion generated power in my lifetime, and I kinda doubt we'll ever see a "Mr Fusion" providing 1.21 Gigawatts. 

But hey, if you had said 25 years ago that everyone would have a smart phone, you likely would have been laughed at. 

So we'll just have to see. 

[gowlerk 1,903]

2 hours ago, wolfriverjoe said:

It's an amazing and potentially 'world changing' accomplishment.

After reading what has been linked to here, probably not. It is not even using the method thought to be the most promising for commercial application. The fusion device 93 million miles away is still our best bet for clean energy. I do appreciate the work being done to explore physics at this laboratory, but let's not forget that its main purpose is improving fusion weapons and ensuring that they have the level of destructiveness wanted without actually having to test them.  

[SethInMI 145]

2 hours ago, wolfriverjoe said:

if you had said 25 years ago that everyone would have a smart phone, you likely would have been laughed at. 

I occasionally ponder how "narrow" our modern advancements are.
Back in the day, they thought we would be Jetsons' level now, Cities on the moon, plentiful energy, flying cars, jetpacks, etc. We have none of that, but we have that one miracle, the incredible shrinking transistor, and it created tech that people back then would be amazed by.

Edited December 18, 2022 by SethInMI
clarify contemplation

[Coreece 189]

On 12/18/2022 at 5:13 PM, SethInMI said:

they thought we would be Jetsons' level now. . . flying cars, jetpacks, etc.

Looks like we're gonna settle on drones when it comes to any mass application, which makes sense given the drive for autonomy.

But even now there are already recreational idiots causing problems and flying in places or a manner in which they shouldn't along with paranoid people thinking that they're spying on them or trying to takes pics of their bikini butt on the beach.  Please, you're not special.  Besides, a 48 megapixel iphone from 10ft away still has more detail than a drone flying 100-400ft away in all directions.