World's largest laser opens (w/Video)
May 29, 2009 By Andy EvangelistaScientists for decades have been hunting for ways to harness the enormous force of the sun and stars to supply energy here on Earth. The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory may spark the light at the end of the tunnel.
The facility was dedicated today (May 29) at a ceremony attended by numerous state and national officials.
Roughly the size of three football fields, the facility houses the world’s largest laser. Within the next three years, its 192 laser beams will deliver massive amounts of energy at a pea-sized target. That target, filled with hydrogen fuel, will in turn release 10 to 100 times the power than the amount injected by the laser.
FLV player
Video credit: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
When all of the lasers’ energy slams the target, it will generate unprecedented temperatures in the target materials - temperatures of more than 100 million degrees and pressures more than 100 billion times the Earth’s atmosphere. These conditions are similar to those in the stars and the cores of giant planets. Igniting these conditions will create nuclear fusion, which is the reaction that gives the sun and the stars their immense power. Mimicking and controlling the highly volatile process - tantamount to creating a star in a laboratory - could lead to ways to produce plentiful clean and safe energy.While demonstrating nuclear fusion as a viable means for abundant clean energy may be the most exciting offshoot of NIF research, another of its roles is to study the conditions associated with the inner workings of nuclear weapons.
The NIF is a cornerstone of a critical national security mission to ensure the reliability and safety of the U.S. nuclear stockpile without conducting underground testing. At NIF, scientists will be able to provide data for supercomputer simulations that replicate conditions that exist inside a thermonuclear weapon.
NIF experiments will also help scientists who are trying to understand the universe in many fundamental ways, including astrophysicists learning about the hot, dense interiors of large planets, stars and other phenomena.
Provided by University of California
Apr 01, 2009 |
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Don't ignite the atmosphere please.
No. You can't contain a thermonuclear bomb. All ICF designs are focused on repeating the process at NIF approximately 10 times per second(instead of a few times per day), burning one tiny fuel pellet at a time.
No shit?! Are they planning on actually collecting the energy?
yes. that's the goal.
https://lasers.ll...re/life/
I remember when i originally read on ITER on project was ignition and another was rapid laser refiring as the two biggest hurdles everything past that was suspected as being easily overcomeable.
ITER is currently on hold due to projected budget overruns --- meaning the people planning it who haven;t even started building it are now saying there estimates 5 years ago were wrong by about 60% IOW it will cost a bit more than twice the previous estimate.
I say doit but i don;t have 500 Billion USd to fork over
Wouldn't a byproduct of the reaction be a plethora of fast neutrons that would induce radioactivity in the reactor environment and thus ultimately be a dirty process, hence not clean energy?
This is not related to ITER. Though both methods are inertial confinement fusion schemes, ITER is an advanced but traditional tokamak (magnetic containment) reactor. NIF, on the other hand, uses the momentum from the 192 laser beams to initiate fusion.