The Strange History of Fusion
and the Science of Wishful Thinking
by Charles Seife
Posted on 05/07/2014 3:25:00 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The aurora is more than just a breathtaking display of light. It may also hold the secret of a magnetic phenomenon related to the nuclear fusion powering the sun. This secret could even help create nuclear fusion in the lab, says a team of researchers.
Nuclear fusion is a reaction that combines the nuclei of two atoms into one. The process powers stars, but getting a self-sustained fusion reaction going on Earth is very difficult, and has so far eluded scientists. For example, in February, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California made headlines when they managed to spur a fusion reaction that ate up less fuel than it produced. But the overall process of triggering the reaction still took more energy than was generated.
...
this solar wind is especially strong, it can cause the planet's magnetic field lines to disconnect from Earth. Then, after moving about a third of the way from the Earth to the moon, these lines reconnect and snap back into position. In the process, they sling charged solar particles toward the Earth's atmosphere, triggering the aurora. This breaking and reconnecting of oppositely directed magnetic field lines is called magnetic reconnection. Incidentally, scientists also believe that magnetic reconnection powers the solar flares themselves.
With the aurora borealis, for example, the northern lights usually occur near the North Pole, but the more the magnetic field lines disconnect and snap back, the further south the lights can appear.
However, magnetic reconnection also happens on a much smaller scale during nuclear fusion in the lab. And it is this process that could help make nuclear fusion energy-efficient, researchers reported on March 14 in the journal Physical Review Letters.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Aurora = Cold Fusion?
Great news! Fusion power is only 20 years away!
NASA is launching this constellation of four satellites later this year to record magnetic reconnection events.
LOL.
Back in 1957, Allis-Chalmers - the tractor and farm implement company - was trying to build a toroidal plasma fusion reactor in one of their shops.
IMHO, pouring vast amounts of money into hot fusion is a waste of resources. Cold fusion has already been demonstrated hundreds if not thousands of times.
And we should pay any attention to your ‘honest opinion’ because your scientific qualifications are .......?
I still suspect its a resonance phemomenon and not really fusion.
I don’t have any scientific qualifications either, but I do walk every day.
‘... ... ... Manamana!....
No need, according now-zotted FReeper kevmo, cold fusion has been solved.
This reminds me of cavitation. Wasn’t it also considered for fusion?
“And we should pay any attention to your ‘honest opinion’ because your scientific qualifications are .......?”
Maybe my 33 year engineering carrier with HP, maybe my patents involving energy conversion, maybe my years of particle accelerator research... Think of me as the backyard quantum physicist who can no longer do the math...
carrier = carrier
Sorry,
career
Calling the process ‘cold fusion’ hasn’t helped. And that was by design of Steven ‘the oilman’s hitman’ Jones.
Sustainable nuclear fusion breakthrough raises hopes for ultimate green energy
The Guardian | 02/13/2014 | Ian Sample
Posted on 2/13/2014 4:58:04 PM by SeekAndFind
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3122676/posts
The scene where LaForge figures out a solution to their problem, I’m attempting an analogy here. :’)
http://www.startrek.com/watch_episode/yNnUnjYI_vbI
...getting a self-sustained fusion reaction going on Earth is very difficult, and has so far eluded scientists.Not true. Hydrogen bombs use a self-sustained fusion reaction, but it doesn't last very long. The problem with building a continuously sustaining fusion reaction appears to be one of insufficient brute force, using at least three different methods, two of which use magnetic fields. Each time the teams spend years building the next and larger machine, they get some numbers out of it after the short-lived fusion reaction, consuming a lot of energy in the process. Next up is always more, bigger, scale it up. I don't think scaling up will ever work. And the neutrons obviously can't be magnetically contained, so the machinery gets bombarded with neutrons and becomes just so much radioactive junk.
Excellent. Post of The Day.
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