Fusion Power alternative in the works ?

[porkrind]

I posted this info on a thread about peak oil in the general discussion forum, but it would probably be of more interest in this forum. With all the talk about peak oil and alternate energy sources, I thought you might find this interesting:


Simple fusion power may be a reality sooner than you might think.

A device has been developed called a "plasma focus," which is basically a way of generating electricity directly from a pulse of fusion energy. The fusion pulse is generated by an intense electrical discharge which necks down and forms a very powerful compressive magnetic field.

Evidently these already work and generate temperatures and X-ray emissions that indicate true fusion is occurring. Clean. No nasty radioactive waste. Electricity is generated directly from the x-ray blast. Although research is ongoing with these devices by many organizations, the "focus fusion society" is the one I was involved with and learned about it through.

Looks like the oil industries worst nightmare. A 1MW power plant the size of a garage. ;)

http://www.focusfusion.org

[aquart]

1. Don't torture me with hope till you're ready to have the trade show.

I've trusted in fusion before. I'm not going thru it again!

[unblock]

3. please don't confuse real fusion with 'cold' fusion

that cold fusion malarky a ways back gave a lot of science, especially regarding nuclear research, a bad name.

a couple scientists f*cked up, and worse, they let the media get *way* ahead of the research. oh well, scientists can make mistakes, in fact, that's part of the scientific process.

real fusion is real, steadily improving in efficiency, and i have little doubt that one day it will become a viable energy source. my only questions regard timing and scalability.

[porkrind]

5. Billions of stars can't be wrong...

Don't be too discouraged. Eventually it will happen.

The goal of fusion is real, B-)B-)B-) just look at the sun!B-)B-)B-) Someday we *will* get there.

These projects may require a lot of R&D to get going, but the payoff is so great that it's definately worth it. One of them will eventually pay off. I think the government should do lots more to fund R&D of alternate energy. The amount of money we currently spend on this is a trifle. Yes, I know that's not really realistic to expect, since the government is run by powerful commercial interests, but I still think it's right.

With regard to the dissapointment of cold fusion, I sympathize. Lately, many scientists have been able to reproduce Pons and Flieshmann's experiments, but they don't generate enough extra heat to be too productive. Although I think it still merits research to at least fully understand the mechanism of what's happening.

[Vogon_Glory]

7. Amen

I've been hoping for practical nuclear fusion power reactors since I was a teenager. I'll believe the hype about fusion when there's something substantial.

[xcentrik]

2. I would love to believe it but...

all such claims in the past have proven, in the long run, to be, in the words of the dear departed Scott Adams, "a load of dingo's kidneys."

[On the Road]

8. It May Not Have Been a Self-Sustaining Reaction,

but apparently the experiments produced excess helium. And where there's excess helium, fusion of hydrogen has almost certainly taken place. There are not too many other options.

The experiments required much more energy than they produced. So it's not commercial. No one knows how the fusion, if any, would have happenned. So we didn't learn anything. The scientists misinterpreted their results. But the experiments may not have been a total failure.

[NEOBuckeye]

4. Sounds Nice, but as long as Dick Cheney has any say...

It won't happen. Not until the very last drop of oil has been extracted from the Earth and sold for some insane amount of money.

[fearnobush]

6. Forget about fusion...

Try <http://www.cheniere.org/> MEG device zero point energy - Chaney hates this stuff.

[megatherium]

9. beware of infinite energy schemes

There's a lot of chicanery out there, out-right frauds as well as enthusiasts who do not know the laws of physics. Any money you invest in this is almost certainly money you'll never see again.

I tried hard to find information on "focus fusion" that came from anyone not actually connected with it. Couldn't find any.

There are large and promising mainstream efforts (ITER, levitated dipole, z-pinch). ITER in particular may lead to a demonstration reactor in the 10 - 20 year time frame. Middle part of this century should see economic fusion power.

[NNadir]

10. There has been slow but steady progress here but...

...it's a case of over promising and under delivering, always a bad idea, as G.W. Bush is about to find out.

Fusion energy is nuclear energy. I've said this here many times before, but any practical fusion system will require Tritium which must be made in fission reactors from Lithium. Therefore, if you cannot accept nuclear energy, as it exists already, you should probably not support fusion research and fusion power.

I think there is a tendency for all untried, non-industrialized energy schemes to over promise and under deliver. That's too bad, since some proposals are ultimately credible and potentially offer real improvements. Investors and governments do not, however, do long term thinking. It follows that you have to hype your system to fund it.

As an advocate of fission nuclear energy, I would welcome fusion to the mix. It's high energy neutrons and very low waste profile make it very attractive for the relatively painless extenstion of resources. It is high tech and its development will provide employment for exactly the kind of labor force I think a healthy country needs.

[Tims]

11. Most Government Funding

for fusion research was pulled in the 80's (under RayGun) long before the cold fusion fiasco. This also included cutbacks in funding for almost all public research in particle physics which would have been invaluable for fusion research. Remember the Super Collider? Several Universities had major projects focusing on fusion research, now only a few of the largest keep the idea alive on a limited budgets. Where many paths to fusion were once being explored, with the cutbacks, only a few of the most promising would remain. Unfortunately, the few projects that survived often led to dead ends.

Where the US used to lead, now much of the basic science is being carried out in Europe and Japan.

Though fusion systems are not truly "clean" the dangers are much more manageable and do not tend to produce the long half-life high radiation waste products that all fission processes do.

Sustainable controlled fusion will eventually be achieved and it will likely play an important role in future energy plans. What is unfortunate is that we should have been where we are today in fusion research at least 15 years ago.

I would much rather we be in the position of having fusion as an existing working option and debating the safety issues of fusion rather than where we are today with no real hope knowing whether a practical fusion generator can be built in the foreseeable future.