[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > 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.
Money I think. These Tokamaks do indeed need to be huge, are extremely expensive and the technology is nowhere near market introduction. > 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. Well, if the US keeps the ABM research up that should be achievable in a few decades. > Yes, controlled fusion would be wonderful - virtually no > radioactive wastes... Not really. There are always many parts of the installation being bombarded with radiation, and that will make them radioactive in a short while. It is considerably less as with nuclear fission, but virtually no is a bit to strong. > Thanks for reminding me that I haven't heard a thing > about it for a long time. Wonder why? :-( According to my classes in nuclear technology the new "Hot Idea" is to use particle accellerators to fire 2 streams of charged particles at eachother. This has the advantage that it is a relatively easy operation. Combined with the right type of particles this should result in the fusion creating charged particles. These are supposed to be caught in an electrical field and then decelerated while inducing electricity in coils. This bypasses the process of heating water to drive a turbine, which is both inefficient as difficult (where to find a heat exchanger that can withstand a plasma of a few million degrees?). Time to market: 4+ decades. Jochem ______________________________________________________________________ Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-community@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
