NIF Aims For the Ultimate Green Energy Source 234
theodp writes "Edward Moses and his team of 500 scientists and engineers at Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility are betting $3.5B in taxpayer money on a tiny pellet they hope could produce an endless supply of safe, clean energy. By the fall of 2010, the team aims to start blasting capsules containing deuterium-tritium fuel with 1.4 megajoules of laser power, a first step towards the holy grail of controlled nuclear fusion. Not all are convinced that Moses will lead us to the promised land. 'They're snake-oil salesmen,' says Thomas Cochran, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Moses, for his part, seems unfazed by the skepticism, saying he's confident that his team will succeed."
Re:Did slashdot just got slashdotted? (Score:5, Funny)
Greedy databases rose up and demanded free space. We negotiated a settlement.
40 years (Score:2, Funny)
Moses leading a team? Will he stop and ask for directions?
Re:Three points (Score:3, Funny)
If the rest of your explanation is as accurate as that, I'm glad I stopped reading.
Re:Deuterium is hardly "endless" (Score:1, Funny)
I can't tell if you're joking, but everything you said about deuterium is 100% false. There is more D in the earth's oceans (1/6500th of all the water) than we could ever imagine using for fusion. It's also extracted cheaply and easily.
1/6500th of the ocean should be enough for anyone!