Fusion Power Breakthrough Near At Sandia Labs? 358
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by
Soulskill
from the i'll-order-a-dozen dept.
from the i'll-order-a-dozen dept.
An anonymous reader writes "An achievement that would have extraordinary energy and defense implications might be near at Sandia National Laboratories. The lab is testing a concept called MagLIF (Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion), which uses magnetic fields and laser pre-heating in the quest for energetic fusion. A paper by Sandia researchers that was accepted for publication states that the Z-pinch driven MagLIF fusion could reach 'high-gain' fusion conditions, where the fusion energy released greatly exceeds (by more than 1,000 times) the energy supplied to the fuel."
Vaporwareized? (Score:1, Funny)
What do you call something that smashes things together but doesn't exist?
Re:Vaporwareized? (Score:5, Funny)
Two flying cars?
Great! (Score:4, Funny)
Tubes Eaten Away (Score:5, Funny)
How much energy goes into the production of the liner tubes, which are apparently eaten away throughout the course of the fusion reaction? Obviously this is all preliminary research, but I still think I'm missing something.
Re:great! (Score:3, Funny)
Of course not, they buy out and extinguish the evidence, duh!
Re:great! (Score:5, Funny)
I made a working engine that ran off of tap water. Then the oil companies had me killed.
Re:great! (Score:5, Funny)
> No, see as you approach feasibility, your likelihood of being bough by a competing producer to be extinguished (see gasoline) becomes multitudes greater.
I'm not necessarily disagreeing, but do you have a reference?
My own suspicion is that as you approach feasibility, government grant money tends to increase, but if you *achieve* practical feasibility, grant money evaporates. Therefore, to maximize funding, you must asymptotically approach feasibility.
But I'm willing to hear a different theory.
Re:great! (Score:5, Funny)
You were lucky. The oil companies beat me around the head and neck with a broken bottle, sliced me in two with a bread knife, then danced around my grave singing "Hallelujah!"
Re:It's "MLIF", not "MILF" (Score:5, Funny)
Although both terms are hot... one is several million degrees hotter than the other
Both take 40 years to begin production.
Re:great! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:great! (Score:2, Funny)
It's the same way God planted Dinosaur bones to test our faith...
I don't see what is so difficult here. (Score:4, Funny)