Fusion Power

[dtotire]

How Seawater Can Power the World

STEWART C. PRAGER

Published: July 10, 2011
Princeton, N.J.




DEBATE about America’s energy supply is heating up: gas prices are rising, ethanol is under attack and nuclear power continues to struggle in the shadow of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

But an abundant, safe and clean energy source once thought to be the stuff of science fiction is closer than many realize: nuclear fusion. Making it a reality, however, will take significant investment from the government at a time when spending on scientific research is under threat.

Harnessing nuclear fusion, the energy that powers the sun and the stars, has been a goal of physicists worldwide since the 1950s. It is essentially inexhaustible and it can be created using hydrogen isotopes — chemical cousins of hydrogen, like deuterium — that can readily be extracted from seawater.

Fusion energy is created by fusing two atomic nuclei, in the process converting mass to energy, which appears as heat. The heat, as in conventional nuclear fission reactors, turns water into steam, which drives turbines to generate electricity, or is used to produce fuels for transportation or other uses.


more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/opinion/11Prager.html?ref=opinion

[NickB79]

1. Now we just have to invent a working fusion reactor that we can use the seawater in

It's only 10 years away, and it has been for the past 50 years :-)

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Fusion goes forward from the fringe

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/10/6619613-fusion-goes-forward-from-the-fringe

Fusion goes forward from the fringe

10 May 2011 | 7:55pm, EDT

By Alan Boyle

A Navy-funded effort to harness nuclear fusion power reports that its unconventional plasma device is operating as designed and generating "positive results" more than halfway through the project.

…

EMC2 Fusion doesn't have tens of millions of venture capital to play with — but it does have a $7.9 million http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency/RecipientReportedData/pages/RecipientProjectSummary508.aspx?AwardIDSUR=46419&qtr=2011Q1">Navy contract to test a plasma technology known as inertial electrostatic confinement fusion, also known as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell">Polywell fusion. The idea is to accelerate positively charged ions in an electrical cage to such an extent that they occasionally spark a fusion reaction, releasing energy and neutrons. The concept was pioneered by the late physicist Robert Bussard, and carried forward by the EMC2 Fusion team in Santa Fe, N.M.

Some of the leading team members went on leave from Los Alamos National Laboratory to work on EMC2. Rick Nebel, the Los Alamos engineer who led the company since Bussard's death in 2007, retired from the company last November. Taking his place as acting chief executive officer is http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=2573198">Jaeyoung Park. The 41-year-old physicist says he's given up his position at Los Alamos to focus fully on EMC2.

…

So how far along is EMC2? The current experiment is known as WB-8, which follows up on WB-5, 6 and 7. "WB" stands for http://www.wiffle.com/">"Wiffle Ball," which describes the spherical swiss-cheese look of the plasma containment cage. The $7.9 million contract covers work to see whether Bussard's fusion concept can be scaled up to a size capable of putting out more power than it consumes.

…

[PoliticAverse]

2. Yeah it's been 'close' for over 30 years. Wake me when it's powering someone's house... n/t

[txlibdem]

3. 16 MW for one second - after 60 years of research

What a cushy job, no progress after 60 years, no expectations of any actual progress, no milestones to meet, just more empty promises that it's 50 years away (which it has been since they first started "researching" it). Where do I sign up?

Never mind that we need it NOW to end the strangle hold of coal, oil and natural gas that will cause irreparable damage to the planet.

[Nihil]

5. Understatement or blind optimism?

> Making it a reality, however, will take significant investment from
> the government at a time when spending on scientific research is under threat.

No, spending on scientific research is not "under threat", it is under attack.