RE: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory makes gain in fusion fuel

johnbeetem — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 21:34:09 GMT

Cabe: That's impressive progress. I remember 30 years ago when it was considered that controlled fusion was a technology that would "always be 30 years in the future". Dealing with plasma on Earth is very, very hard because every time you try to confine it and compress it, it leaks out though any gaps in the forces that are trying to confine it. I was told it was like "trying to confine Jell-o with a bunch of rubber bands".

It's easy if you're a star, because your huge gravitational attraction pulls the nuclei together so they can fuse. Similarly, it's easy in a hydrogen bomb because the pressure and heat from the fission bomb that ignites it is so intense. The hard part is doing it on a small, controlled scale.

So I'm very impressed that LLNL has achieved ignition, even for a short amount of time. Maybe practical fusion is only 20 years away now [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-c869f87f-7b21-4650-a525-9caacf0eca49/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

RE: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory makes gain in fusion fuel

DAB — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 20:23:51 GMT

I hate to ruin the party, but solar fusion will not generate more energy than it consumes.

Any terrestrial fusion attempt will also never generate more energy than it uses. The fusion process converts kinetic energy into potential energy.

That energy is only released during nuclear fission.

Sorry, but the truth and sixty years of failed experiments are undeniable.

DAB