Energy of the Future: Igniting a Star With Laser Light

[patriot45]

Good Lord, give an egghead a science kit when they are young and they will grow up to end the world!!
Or at least try to!

LIVERMORE, California – It may look like one of Michael Bay's Transformers, but this mass of machinery could soon be the birthplace of a baby star right here on Earth.

Using 192 separate lasers and a 400-foot-long series of amplifiers and filters, scientists at Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility (NIF) hope to create a self-sustaining fusion reaction like the ones in the sun or the explosion of a nuclear bomb — only on a much smaller scale.

[megimoo]

Good Lord, give an egghead a science kit when they are young and they will grow up to end the world!!
Or at least try to!

This is the design for a new type of nuclear reactor with the fuel placed in small dots on metallic strips .They built one of these at M.I.T in the late Eighty's . As the strips are pulled in the reactor vessel they are zapped by lasers and and excite the electrons to a higher energy level and cause an release of nuclear energy in a burst .As the thermal burst dies down the strip moves to the next small dot and repeats the process.There is no sustained reaction or critical mass so it is very safe.

The reaction builds up a tremendous amount of heat and causes the primary steam lines to flash liquid metal into the heat exchangers causing secondary steam lines to flash into superheated steam.If they lose power the lasers stop and the reaction ceases.The total reaction mass is tiny but the thermal energy is very large.The thermal time constant causes the sustained heat transfer to continue between bursts of energy .

[noonwitch]

This is the design for a new type of nuclear reactor with the fuel placed in small dots on metallic strips .They built one of these at M.I.T in the late Eighty's . As the strips are pulled in the reactor vessel they are zapped by lasers and and excite the electrons to a higher energy level and cause an release of nuclear energy in a burst .As the thermal burst dies down the strip moves to the next small dot and repeats the process.There is no sustained reaction or critical mass so it is very safe.

The reaction builds up a tremendous amount of heat and causes the primary steam lines to flash liquid metal into the heat exchangers causing secondary steam lines to flash into superheated steam.If they lose power the lasers stop and the reaction ceases.The total reaction mass is tiny but the thermal energy is very large.The thermal time constant causes the sustained heat transfer to continue between bursts of energy .

Okay, I'm mathmatically and scientifically challenged, so nuclear science is not something I have the greatest understanding of.

This is what I wonder-if by causing a lot of thermal energy with less of a reaction mass, does that mean there is little or no radioactive residue to dispose of afterwards? If so, that would remove most of the safety objections that people have about nuclear energy. It could make electricity cheap, again.

[megimoo]

Okay, I'm mathmatically and scientifically challenged, so nuclear science is not something I have the greatest understanding of.

This is what I wonder-if by causing a lot of thermal energy with less of a reaction mass, does that mean there is little or no radioactive residue to dispose of afterwards? If so, that would remove most of the safety objections that people have about nuclear energy. It could make electricity cheap, again.

People wont take the time to understand the issues.Some Tree Humper will rail against it and the rest of the Nature Freak pack will all follow in line like ducks ,Remember Woodsie the spotted owl ?

Radioactive materials are atoms that are in a constant state of decay,that is their atom structures are breaking down and releasing the core neutrons in the nuclei's .If an electron (the anti protron)and the protron combine the excess energy is released as heat (radiation ) and an new neutral particles forms and is released called a neutron.This is going on all of the time and the atoms are said to be unstable until all of the atomic structure has been re_arranged (Its half life).

When enough atoms in the form of U238 are adjacent to each other to cause an avalanche of neutrons the atoms are said to be a critical mass and the nuclear reaction starts and runs away !

A critical mass is just that . Just enough mass available to cause an neutron storm of a critical intensity to sustain an reaction .Too little and it won't developer,too much and it is dampened.In an atomic device using a 'gun type' trigger two hemispheres (Critical Mass Half Spheres) are slammed together by an explosive charge down the length of tubing like a gun barrel, they reach criticallity and explode !

This is a bad thing if uncontrolled as in a nuclear warhead.It takes about seven and a half pounds of highly enriched uranium U235 in one mass to reach criticallity .

In a conventional nuclear reactor most of the energy(thermal) is wasted as radiated heat through the stack .They use fuel rods filled with enriched U235 as fuel and the reaction starts when they pull the adjacent neutron absorbant rods from between the adjacent fuel canisters allowing a free exchange of neutrons that cascade (Storm) into a full reaction.

If the reaction is too strong and starts to 'run away' the neutron absorbant rods lower automatically to slow the reaction down by removing excess neutrons again . When the fuel is exhausted ,(After about seven or eight years )(Most of the atoms broken down )The used fuel rods are pulled from the reactor and stored in a tampering pool to cool off and to absorb residual very low nuclear radiation .

This type of reactor uses a tiny amounts of sub critical mass Uranium U235 and rises its neutron activity by laser excitation of of its sub_atomic structure .By splitting atoms the reaction starts and continues as long as the laser continues to destabilize the remaining atoms and release more neutrons.

There is still nuclear residue but in much smaller quantity's.It is impossible for this kind of reactor to 'run away' as the fuel supply is limited and there is no critical mass so it is inherently safe but the politics of liberals will not care .

They will be against it because they are all basically Mindless, Emotional, Anti Intelligence, Brain Washed,College Graduate, liberal idiots !Always remember todays College Professors were yesterdays hippies or their sons and daughters !

France gets most of its electric power from nuclear reactors and has for years and They have never had an accident .

[djones520]

Okay, I'm mathmatically and scientifically challenged, so nuclear science is not something I have the greatest understanding of.

This is what I wonder-if by causing a lot of thermal energy with less of a reaction mass, does that mean there is little or no radioactive residue to dispose of afterwards? If so, that would remove most of the safety objections that people have about nuclear energy. It could make electricity cheap, again.

BUT IT'S NUCULER ENERGY!!!!!!ELEVENTYONE!!!!

[JB]

scientists at...National Ignition Facility (NIF)

Oh man. Does that sound like a cool place to work or what?

I hope they spark this baby around the same time that particle accelerator comes online. Hold onto your hats!!! :p

[SarasotaRepub]

BUT IT'S NUCULER ENERGY!!!!!!ELEVENTYONE!!!!

Exactly. :D