U.S. to join international fusion project

The Washington Times ^ | January 30, 2003

[Indy Pendance]

PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The United States will join negotiations to build and operate a major international fusion research project, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Thursday.

Known as ITER -- from the Latin word meaning "the way" -- the project is intended to build on previous fusion concepts involving magnetic containment of high-temperature plasma, a state of matter so hot that even atoms cannot hold together.

[Windcatcher]

I've been following our fusion program for several years now. including ITER. The reason is that they're at the "burning plasma" stage, which means that they now need to investigate how the plasma behaves when it's over the break-even point--when the energy from the fusion is keeping the plasma heated more than the energy from the electrical grid. That is, more energy coming out than going in. I read a report from some scientists last year and everyone is unanimous; this is the next step in the research chain, and it's absolutely necessary.

[pabianice]

[Mark]

The next thing you know, we'll be told we can just pop some food into a container and bombard it with some kind of waves, using no gas or heat. Just silly!(/humor)

[CasearianDaoist]

Were we not originally in ITER in the early '90s?

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Windcatcher]

We were, but Congress backed out in 1998. Since then it's undergone something of a redesign, due to some breakthroughs that have been found since then. It was originally going to use a purely (old-style) toroidal design, but now they're looking at newer techniques like the spherical torus. Also, we had a team at Princeton doing our own research which was yielding some terrific results. Now that they're looking into "burning plasma" which by its nature requires a much larger apparatus, it makes sense to join forces with other countries to spread around the cost.

[Moonman62]

This is the project the president should have touted in his SOTUS, not the hydrogen car.

[RightWhale]

the spherical torus

Got a schematic diagram or verbal description of this? I'm okay up to the doughnut shape concept and even the twisted doughnut--cruller.

[Windcatcher]

Here's Princeton's homepage for the NSTX (National Spherical Torus Experiment):

http://www.pppl.gov/projects/pages/nstx.html

Basically a spherical torus is a sphere, with the center cut out. I'm not a fusion expert, but it seems that changing the aspect ratio makes it a lot more efficient--the ratio of magnetic field strength to plasma temperature/pressure is lower (you don't need as much energy to maintain the plasma pressure).

[wimpycat]

U.S. to join international fusion project

Hmmmm...are we joining a new jazz band?

[Willie Green]

"Science in the 21st Century is often a global effort," Abraham said. "Time and again, homegrown scientific discoveries turn out to be not so homegrown after all. Often, international cooperation is indispensable to achieving results."

Typical "let somebody else lead the way" globalist doubletalk.

[Indy Pendance]

I've followed it a little, but probably not as much as you. It's a fascinating concept. (Old college physics)

[Indy Pendance]

The hydrogen car concept, I believe, was aimed strictly for the liberals and envirowackos. This is a harder concept to understand.

[Indy Pendance]

Thanks for all the information!

[RightWhale]

The cored apple. Thanks. Supposedly I've had enough math to deal with this, so I'll see what I might find in the literature.

[Windcatcher]

I have a Master's in Physics, in 1994, but I made the choice to get out. I had a part-time job as a software developer, and I decided I liked doing that a lot more (it's also turned out to be lucrative). I was TERRIBLE at nuclear physics :)

[Indy Pendance]

I liked studying nuclear physics. I agree about the pay in any science field. I'm an engineer and we get the shaft compared to less demanding degrees. I know our chemists do as well. I wish I would have known back then what I know now. The harder the degree, the less pay..... So, I got an MBA to compensate. It helped.

[roadcat]

"The hydrogen car concept, I believe, was aimed strictly for the liberals and envirowackos. This is a harder concept to understand."

What's so hard to understand? We've all seen Mr.Fusion in action in a Back To The Future movie! The plasma container better be real strong to take a hit, if it's in any car I drive.

[RightWhale]

Go for the less glamorous jobs, like the power utility company. It's for life and the pay is good.