UK joins laser nuclear fusion project

[teqniq]

From the BBC:

The UK has formally joined forces with a US laser lab in a bid to develop clean energy from nuclear fusion.
Unlike fission plants, the process uses lasers to compress atomic nuclei until they join, releasing energy.
The National Ignition Facility (Nif) in the US is drawing closer to producing a surplus of energy from the idea.
The UK company AWE and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have now joined with Nif to help make laser fusion a viable commercial energy source......

Here's hoping that this or something similar to it works. Not like we desperately need a clean sustainable power source or anything, oh no.....

 

[HAL9000]

If lasers can be used to generate power, great.

I suspect the primary aim of this project is to help manage existing nuclear weapons (which are fusion weapons) and perhaps design the next generation of nuclear weapons. Hence AWE's involvement.

 

[teqniq]

@ HAL9000 You could well be right except that existing nuclear weapons are fission weapons. However If they ever manage to develop fusion ones, well I don't really want to think about the possible destructive potential. As far as fusion energy is concerned though I am ever-hopeful that someone is going to pull a rabbit out of the hat.

Incidentally i forgot to put the BBC link in for the OP and can't edit it in there so here it is:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14842720

 

[weltweit]

@ HAL9000 You could well be right except that existing nuclear weapons are fission weapons. However If they ever manage to develop fusion ones, well I don't really want to think about the possible destructive potential. As far as fusion energy is concerned though I am ever-hopeful that someone is going to pull a rabbit out of the hat.

I thought for Fusion they need Helium 3 which they could only get from old nuclear weapons or the moon!

 

[teqniq]

Um no there are other potential sources from the linked article above:

The laser fusion idea uses pellets of fuel made of isotopes of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium. A number of lasers are fired at the pellets in order to compress the fuel to just hundredths of its starting size.

there are others, one possibility is an isotope of Boron which i believe is what Bussard proposed for the Polywell fusion reactor; there was a thread on here but i don't know if it's still around after the move.

 

[HAL9000]

Modern nuclear weapons use a fission bomb to trigger a fusion reaction. More common term is H bomb

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon#Fusion_weapons

Helium 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3#Terrestrial_abundance

 

[Crispy]

Um no there are other potential sources from the linked article above:

there are others, one possibility is an isotope of Boron which i believe is what Bussard proposed for the Polywell fusion reactor; there was a thread on here but i don't know if it's still around after the move.

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/bussards-fusion-work-the-polywell-looks-very-promising.133139/
and, to avoid bumping that thread: no new news since last year

 

[teqniq]

@ HAL9000 ok thanks for the clarification I wasn't entirely aware of how they worked, I suppose I was thinking of a pure fusion weapon a la sci-fi style.

Cheers Crispy, I've been occasionally looking at the Polywell forum that was originally linked to in that thread and, as you say no news.