back in '89 at Livermore Labs they were working on 2 different methods for controlled fusion - toroidal magnetic confinement of plasma, and a laser method.
The toroidal method I think was favored by MIT. It allowed a superhot plasma which could maintain continuous fusion reaction to be held within a magnetic field. It "fell out of favor" whether for political or physics reasons. The laser method involved firing huge lasers at a pellet of fuel, which instantly heated enough to undergo fusion. The key was a powerful enough laser firing rapidly enough to keep fuel pellets undergoing fusion so you had a continuous reaction. Yes, controlled fusion would be wonderful - virtually no radioactive wastes... Thanks for reminding me that I haven't heard a thing about it for a long time. Wonder why? :-( -Ben > And sometime much further down the road, nuclear fusion. > The current state of research (according to my fiancé who has a Physics > PhD) is that with a very big and expensive particle accelerator > equilibrium has been achieved i.e. same energy out as what you put into > the system. To go a step further, an even bigger accelerator is needed > to prove the concept and produce a net-gain of energy. One was actually > on the drawing board for a multi-national effort, US, EU and Japan, I > believe. The project never got off the ground because a location for > the facility could not be agreed upon and the funding then killed. The > technology is possible (in terms of decades), the political will is what > is needed. > > -----Original Message----- > From: William H. Bowen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 7:34 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Another reason for me not to like the government ... > > > wind > > According to several of the engineers here at ALSTOM EAI, if all of the > land > that is currently slated for wind power generation in the state of > Nevada > (for building wind farms over the next 10 years) were available right > now, > we could eliminate all of the coal facilities in the United States and > still > have surplus power. > > Nuclear is another story because of the vast amounts of energy produced, > with a minimum of fuel. > > > will > ---- > > William H. Bowen > Webmaster > ALSTOM Energy Automation & Information > > "Your friendly neighborhood Webmaster" > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.esca.com/ > > 425.739.3629 Voice > 425.466.7016 Cell > 425.739.3690 FAX > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Todd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 3:54 PM > Subject: Re: Another reason for me not to like the government ... > > > > in line > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Raymond Camden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 4:53 PM > > Subject: RE: Another reason for me not to like the government ... > > > > > > > Well, to be completely honest (and a bit unrealistic) you _do_ have > a > > > choice. Simply refuse to use anything electrical. Yes, I know it's > > > unrealistic but it IS a choice. > > > > Right .. all of us CF Developers should refuse to use computers ;) > > > > > Also, people could refuse to work for > > > power plant. Yes, this would take sacrifice and a group effort and > it > > > will never happen, but if enough people cared, it would. Heck, you > > > really don't have to go as far as unplugging yourself from the grid, > > > simply outlaw nuclear power plants. > > > > I'm not thrilled with nuclear plants. I would much rather have > something > > else. The question is what? I'm not so sure there is any such thing > as > > completely green energy on the face of the planet. > > > > > Yes, they have lobbyists with huge > > > amounts of money to spend - but at the end of the day, if enough > people > > > made it known that so and so wouldn't get reelected - he would do > it. > > > > Maybe .. but money makes the world go round and those with the money > > probably don't care about such things. They've got theirs, so .. > > > > > I guess my main point is - people CAN take the power back from > > > coporations - if they work together - but there will never be enough > > > cohesion for that to happen. That isn't the corps fault - it's our > > > fault. > > > > It's both .. but I'm not even going to get in to that one ;) > > > > P.T. > > > > > -RC > > > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-community@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
