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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Wed Apr 4, 2012, 10:53 AM Apr 2012

Plasma fusion becomes a reality?

Scientists in a New Jersey laboratory say they are close to a major breakthrough in the field of fusion that they predict will soon allow for an unlimited source of the cheapest, cleanest and safest energy ever.

Researchers at Lawrenceville Plasma Physics in Middlesex, NJ have published the results of their recent work in the Physics of Plasmas journal last week, and expect one of their next rounds of testing to finally tackle an issue of energy procurement that would rival anything already available. In their latest breakthrough, fusion researchers at the lab say that they’ve successfully heated and confined an ionized gas at record temperatures which would be high enough to allow for the nuclear fusion of certain elements, including hydrogen and boron. Those elements double as aneutronic fuels — that is, they produce no neutrons during the fusion process — and could thus be quickly converted to electricity without using the expensive and dangerous conversion measures currently available. Scientists say they believe they are close to a breakthrough that will allow them to harness energy from the elements and thus work with an energy source more marketable than anything now available.

According to the scientists, they have identified and emulated two of the three conditions necessary to show energy production with aneutronic fuels. Eric Lerner, a chief scientist for Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, says that figuring out the temperature and confinement necessary for the fusion have been established in their research, and that once the team can determine the necessary conditions for the third variable — density — they will be able to harness energy from plasma.

“We are still far from having sufficient density in the tiny hot regions to get net energy, but that is our next goal,” Lerner says in a press release on the research.

To RT, fellow Lawrenceville researcher Derek Shannon adds, “We are working on the third criterion, density, now, with the goal of demonstrating full scientific feasibility this year.” Shannon also predicts that the research coming out of the New Jersey lab could put the groups as far as decade ahead of competing projects that aim to introduce manageable fusion fuels.

more
http://rt.com/usa/news/plasma-fusion-energy-nuclear-080/

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Plasma fusion becomes a reality? (Original Post) n2doc Apr 2012 OP
But can they control it? sdfernando Apr 2012 #1
Sorry, I smell quackery Ratty Apr 2012 #2
Until you get to more energy out than put in Yo_Mama Apr 2012 #3
Ah, another venture from Blue Sky Technologies, Inc. MineralMan Apr 2012 #4
How to spot a scam in these things... cthulu2016 Apr 2012 #5
Very well stated, cthulhu longship Apr 2012 #6
"close to a major breakthrough" PoliticAverse Apr 2012 #7

sdfernando

(4,935 posts)
1. But can they control it?
Wed Apr 4, 2012, 11:04 AM
Apr 2012

“We are working on the third criterion, density, now, with the goal of demonstrating full scientific feasibility this year.”

I predict that they will perform their test on December 21, 2012 with disastrous results.....

Ratty

(2,100 posts)
2. Sorry, I smell quackery
Wed Apr 4, 2012, 11:21 AM
Apr 2012

Lawrenceville Plasma Physics is hardly a bastion of scientific integrity, nor is its founder. I smell a typical venture capital lure only a step or two above perpetual motion and spinning-magnet antigravity.

Fusing hydrogen and boron would be huge. It's exponentially more difficult than hydrogen and hydrogen.

Yo_Mama

(8,303 posts)
3. Until you get to more energy out than put in
Wed Apr 4, 2012, 11:23 AM
Apr 2012

This is all just more talk.

Density is not just a random third variable that needs to be known - it changes the process.

MineralMan

(146,297 posts)
4. Ah, another venture from Blue Sky Technologies, Inc.
Wed Apr 4, 2012, 12:28 PM
Apr 2012

Invest now! Get in at the beginning! We're so close!

That's my estimate about this. And RT, once again, shows its lack of discernment. Check out the cool photo in the article! It must be true.

cthulu2016

(10,960 posts)
5. How to spot a scam in these things...
Wed Apr 4, 2012, 12:40 PM
Apr 2012

Scientists in a New Jersey laboratory say they are close to a major breakthrough in the field of fusion that they predict will soon allow for an unlimited source of the cheapest, cleanest and safest energy ever.



Scientists don't say things like that. Scientists almost never say anything that would excite an investor. They say things in a scientific mode that is brutally understated.

longship

(40,416 posts)
6. Very well stated, cthulhu
Wed Apr 4, 2012, 01:47 PM
Apr 2012

You are exactly correct. OP reads more like a press release.

Too many people confuse scientific finding and pseudoscientific funding.

H + B --> C ??

What's the cross section of that interaction? I don't know. Anybody?

PoliticAverse

(26,366 posts)
7. "close to a major breakthrough"
Wed Apr 4, 2012, 02:26 PM
Apr 2012

And I'm close to winning the lottery.

Save the press releases for when you actually have a major breakthrough.

(and make sure you really do else you end up like Pons and Fleischmann).

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