Scientists at US Laboratory Ready to Create Fusion Energy

**SystemRat** · 11-02-09, 11:27 AM

**best4less** · 11-02-09, 11:47 AM

Thanks for the links,it was a great read

specially this bit

Recipe for a Small Star

* Take a hollow, spherical plastic capsule about two millimeters in diameter (about the size of a small pea)
* Fill it with 150 micrograms (less than one-millionth of a pound) of a mixture of deuterium and tritium, the two heavy isotopes of hydrogen.
* Take a laser that for about 20 billionths of a second can generate 500 trillion watts – the equivalent of five million million 100-watt light bulbs.
* Focus all that laser power onto the surface of the capsule.
* Wait ten billionths of a second.
* Result: one miniature star.

In this process the capsule and its deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel will be compressed to a density 100 times that of solid lead, and heated to more than 100 million degrees Celsius – hotter than the center of the sun. These conditions are just those required to initiate thermonuclear fusion, the energy source of stars.

By following our recipe, we would make a miniature star that lasts for a tiny fraction of a second. During its brief lifetime, it will produce energy the way the stars and the sun do, by nuclear fusion. Our little star will produce ten to 100 times more energy than we used to ignite it.

**ingxen** · 11-02-09, 11:50 AM

I got excited until I read this bit, at least it's a step forward though.

But Charles Seife cautions it will be important for the project to generate more energy than it uses. "But is this going to actually produce more energy than the laser consumes?" he questioned. "Almost certainly not. And in fact, if you press them, they hedge a little bit, maybe we'll get ignition, maybe we won't."

**trash** · 11-02-09, 03:23 PM

Why wait for the big boys to make it happen when you can just build your own fusion reactor ?

You won't get as much energy out as the big boys, but you'll put a lot less in for the same results.

**ben10** · 11-02-09, 03:47 PM

fission + fusion = confusion

**tagg** · 11-02-09, 05:57 PM

End of the world time lol

Tagg

**jmc96** · 13-02-09, 08:38 PM

Huh, that's nothin. There's a thread on this forum somewhere sugesting guys are getting free energy out of water to run their cars, beat that! Why go to soooo much trouble with all this fusion stuff?

**Tecom Master** · 13-02-09, 09:06 PM

**GamerBoy** · 13-02-09, 09:32 PM

Originally Posted by jmc96

Huh, that's nothin. There's a thread on this forum somewhere sugesting guys are getting free energy out of water to run their cars, beat that! Why go to soooo much trouble with all this fusion stuff?