Large Hadron Collider
- Thread starter ATOMIC SUPLEX
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TheHoodedClaw
acknowledging ur soup leg
There are naturally occurring particle collisions of as great or greater energy that happen occasionally in our atmosphere and we've survived them without any great trouble.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray_burst
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-energy_cosmic_ray
OK, I've been trying to get my head round some physics in the last few months. Making up for dropping it at GCSE.
Sorry if you know this already but.
Fusion occurs at extremely high tempratures. It's what the sun does. i.e. the atoms wizzing around like, really quickly, smashing into each other and the nuclear's fusing, due to the Strong Nuclear Force that binds atoms nuclia together. If this force didn't exist, everything would, well just fall apart. Though it takes a lot of energy to start the system, you get far more out.
When the atoms in question are relatively light, of a low mass. Energy is released in the fusion process. In the sun, Hydrogen, the lightest atom, is fused and becomes Helium. Probably something to do with the conservation laws. I think it's like as they fuse, sub atomic particles break away, including photons.
Radio active particles are also released in the process. In the case of boron-11, mentioned in the system above. When this decays, breaks up, as it fuses, Helium 4 is released. This is also known as Alfa decay. This is basically harmless and can be stopped by a piece of paper. Alfa particles lose their energy over very short distances.
The obligatory, AFAIK
Just been looking at that link and noticed that they've re-organised the UK research councils again...You sure? RAL have been contributing to the LHC project, even though the experiments are done at CERN
http://www.scitech.ac.uk/SciProg/PP/Projects/LHC.aspx
*desperately wants ChrisFilter Snr to be a top scientist at RAL so he can come on here and explain the wonders of the universe to us*
Also that the ISIS Second Target Station at RAL will start producing neutrons this year.
2008 is going to be a good year for smashing small stuff...
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
Dotcommunist - the clever thing about the polywell fusion method is that you don't need massive temperatures or pressures. By setting up a gradient of electric charge throughtout the chamber, ions of what ever you want to fuse whizz back and forth at very high speeds (like ball bearings running back and forth in a big bowl). When two particles collide in the center, they're going fast enough to fuse and release energy. The clever bit is the arrangement of the magnets, which 'herd' a cloud of electrons onto the particular shape that produces a high enough gradient. This magnetic field also prevents the flying ions from colliding with the magnets. The magnetic field also channels the high-energy products of the fusion reaction out along several axes. That energy can either be used to heat a fluid which drives turbines like a regular power station, or (if we can build it) converted directly into electricity with solid-state (ie. no moving parts) electrodes. Even more excitingly, you could use the energy to directly heat a propellant, and create a rocket engine powerful enough to take off from earth, and fly to mars and back under continuous power.
This method of fusion has been done before - it's called a hersh-farnsworth fusor. That design uses 2 spherical grids, oppositely charged, to create the electric gradient. However, most of the whizzing ions collide with the mesh of the grids, preventing most fusions. These devices require much more energy than they produce. By removing the grids, and allowing the ions to circulate freely, the Bussard polywell should allow fusion with an energy product greater than that required to power the magnets.
Wikipedia has a pretty good page, with pictures of the prototype machines (which are housed in a spherical vacuum shell when running)
This method of fusion has been done before - it's called a hersh-farnsworth fusor. That design uses 2 spherical grids, oppositely charged, to create the electric gradient. However, most of the whizzing ions collide with the mesh of the grids, preventing most fusions. These devices require much more energy than they produce. By removing the grids, and allowing the ions to circulate freely, the Bussard polywell should allow fusion with an energy product greater than that required to power the magnets.
Wikipedia has a pretty good page, with pictures of the prototype machines (which are housed in a spherical vacuum shell when running)
There's two accelerators at RAL Harwell, Diamond Light Source, a Synchrotron that generates high intensity light, mainly X-rays, though some beamlines will produce other wavelengths (I used to work there helping to commission it) and ISIS which is used to generate neutrons. Last I heard they were also trying to get some funding for a free electron laser as well. To put it in perspective Diamond is about 570m in circumference and is 'only' working at 3GeV
The other site at Harwell is mainly dedicated to decommissioning of nuclear reactors, it used to do some reprocessing and had a range of reactors on site but they've all been shut down and are in various stages of being decommissioned.
There's also Culham, just the other side of Abingdon, which has the JET and MAST fusion reactors.
The other site at Harwell is mainly dedicated to decommissioning of nuclear reactors, it used to do some reprocessing and had a range of reactors on site but they've all been shut down and are in various stages of being decommissioned.
There's also Culham, just the other side of Abingdon, which has the JET and MAST fusion reactors.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Balbi
Hey, Dean Yager!
Captain Crispy....his 5 year mission to boldly go blah blah blah...
and split infinitives in the process. maybe splitting infinitives would be a good energy source, that splitting atoms stuff is rubbish
TheHoodedClaw
acknowledging ur soup leg
I'd go too.
This is what I like to hear
manned flight to mars by 2030 ftmfw
More earth bound. I can imagine things like giant fusion powered desalination plants.
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
Fusion certainly seems to be the way forward. In the meantime we should be using tidal, not wind, power.
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
Wind turbines are an absolute waste of resources.
Look at the production costs, limited life, variable output and the fact that if the grid wasn't forced by law to take their output at a premium price, they wouldn't sell a watt of electricity.
peterpeter
Giggy
I was pretty lucky to visit this very collider in dec 2005. Its massive. heres a pic
You can arrange a free tour of CERN provided you can get there. just go to their website (CERN). You have to book about 6 months in advance. I have a booking in place for the end of March but nobody i know is geeky enough to go with me
I still don't really understand what it does but it is too cool not to see.
It's gonna smash protons together and look into the debris for hither to only theoretical sub atomic particles. The so called, Higgs Boson in particular. If observed, it will fill in gaps in the standard model of quantem physics.
Basically if it works and they see what they expect, it means the quantem physisists are barking up the right tree.
Basically if it works and they see what they expect, it means the quantem physisists are barking up the right tree.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
Got some figures for that?
I was gonna ask that too.
Dillinger4
Es gibt Zeit
You can arrange a free tour of CERN provided you can get there. just go to their website (CERN). You have to book about 6 months in advance. I have a booking in place for the end of March but nobody i know is geeky enough to go with me
I still don't really understand what it does but it is too cool not to see.
You have just given me an idea for a holiday.
I might see if my friend is back around there over summer. He is from Denmark, originally.
It's thrown up a court case now http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=2688
Is there any possibility they may have a point?
Is there any possibility they may have a point?
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
It's thrown up a court case now http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=2688
Is there any possibility they may have a point?
No. And it seems they'll have to juris some dicktion as well. Stupid waste of court time. Has any society ever thrown up such a large legal apparatus as these yankee twats?
The sailient point I believe is this. From above artical.
"Reality check
Saying something is absolutely impossible doesn't always come easy. Some scientists find it difficult to state categorically that such-and-such a theoretical
catastrophe has no chance of happening, and Fermilab spokeswoman Judy Jackson told me that the doomsayers have "cynically distorted" that natural reluctance
to rule out even the most outlandish theoretical possibilities."
The impression I got hearing an interview regarding this is. The theorists causing alarm over the LHC's amagedin potential are basically kranks. Fringe publicity seaking physics theorists.
Unfortunately legal proceedings, how ever tenuously based, have the potential to delay the experiments.
"Reality check
Saying something is absolutely impossible doesn't always come easy. Some scientists find it difficult to state categorically that such-and-such a theoretical
catastrophe has no chance of happening, and Fermilab spokeswoman Judy Jackson told me that the doomsayers have "cynically distorted" that natural reluctance
to rule out even the most outlandish theoretical possibilities."
The impression I got hearing an interview regarding this is. The theorists causing alarm over the LHC's amagedin potential are basically kranks. Fringe publicity seaking physics theorists.
Unfortunately legal proceedings, how ever tenuously based, have the potential to delay the experiments.
What was the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory has two accelerators; ISIS (http://www.isis.rl.ac.uk/) and Diamond Light Source (www.diamond.ac.uk). ISIS is a low power accelerator that uses protons (hydrogen ions) to generate neutons when they are fired into a target. It has just been extends with the construction of Target Station Two. DLS is a synchrotron, a 3GeV electron accelerator used to generae high intensity beams of light from far IR to X-ray.
I worked on Daimond for a couple of years on the teams dealing with the PLC systems controlling the vacuum and machine protection systems and on motion control in the beamlines. Very
!RAL also has a cutting edge laser facility and the Space Sciences Division that has produced a lot of systems design and build for satellites like Soho.
ETA: Doh! I really should have checked that it wasn't a thread brought back from the dead! Similar post a few back!
cybertect
It's grim up north (London)
No correction needed
Although I have my hopes on Inertial Electrodynamic Fusion myself - the Bussard Polywell. They're building and testing a new prototype right now.
Any relation to Robert Bussard, the creator of the Bussard Ramjet?
e2a: Wikipedia has answered my question - same guy
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