"Final Phase of Fusion Quest" (N.I.F.)

Reflections on fusion history, current events, and predictions for the 'fusion powered future.
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Paul_Schatzkin
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"Final Phase of Fusion Quest" (N.I.F.)

Post by Paul_Schatzkin »

I found this amusing because it appeared on the back page of my Sunday paper with the headline

"Scientists enter final phase of fusion quest"

Which, when you read the article:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_1612 ... atimes.com

...appears to be a ridiculously misleading headline. Witness these elected quotations:

"Lab officials promised congressional funders that before Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2010, they would start "credible ignition experiments" in the enormous facility, which officially opened in spring 2009."

"...credible means that we have no reason to believe it's not going to work," Thomas D'Agostino, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the Livermore lab, told Sen. Dianne Feinstein during Congressional testimony in March."

Lynda Seaver, a lab spokeswoman, said this week that, in fact, there's no expectation of achieving ignition this month, given the composition of the fuel capsule at the heart of the experiment. "This is not ignition. It will take a year or two to get ignition," she said.

Personally, I love the definition of "credible," i.e. "no reason to believe it's not going to work."

How nice to see our gov't watchdogs closely supervising the expenditure of our tax dollars.

--PS
Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" – Founder and Host of Fusor.net
Author of The Boy Who Invented Television: 2023 Edition – https://amz.run/6ag1
"Fusion is not 20 years in the future; it is 60 years in the past and we missed it."
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Mike Beauford
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Re: "Final Phase of Fusion Quest" (N.I.F.)

Post by Mike Beauford »

Yeah, I read the same article and thought the same thing. Just another jaded attempt to get more eye ball traffic through mis-direction.

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Todd Massure
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Re: "Final Phase of Fusion Quest" (N.I.F.)

Post by Todd Massure »

Well shoot, let's get some funding here with a 100% guarantee of fusion success by fusor forum members!
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Paul_Schatzkin
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Re: "Final Phase of Fusion Quest" (N.I.F.)

Post by Paul_Schatzkin »

You miss the point, Todd. We don't need no stinkin' "100% guarantee of success."

All we need to produce is "no reason to believe it's not going to work."

Now, if I could just find the "sarcasm" key on this computer..

--PS
Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" – Founder and Host of Fusor.net
Author of The Boy Who Invented Television: 2023 Edition – https://amz.run/6ag1
"Fusion is not 20 years in the future; it is 60 years in the past and we missed it."
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Re: "Final Phase of Fusion Quest" (N.I.F.)

Post by Richard Hester »

Maybe people are beginning to wonder about the amount of money spent on this monster, and the ones at the dole-out end are beginning to sweat. I sense bureaucratic weasel-words.

I had a chance to scan the article - that's whats going on, and the folks holding the purse strings are getting a little tired of "real soon now". Some scientists are talking about a diode-pumped version of this machine for "real fusion power". True, it gets around a lot of the problems of a flashlamp-pumped machine, and the power train would be loads more efficient, but I can't see operating large, delicate optics at ~10pps (the approximate rep rate needed for usable power, assuming ignition is attained) 24/7 without something going ping, spung, snap! A tiny speck of dust or a small fault in the coating is all it takes at this power/energy level.
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Mark Rowley
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Re: "Final Phase of Fusion Quest" (N.I.F.)

Post by Mark Rowley »

I am confident "ignition" will take place in the target. However, this is all about stockpile maintenence with power generation being a very distant second place. This is usually how it goes.

BTW, went there for a tour about 18 months ago. Quite an impressive facility to say the least, but not much to say about our tour guide. When he began to speak of conveyor fed targets, my skeptical attitude was immediately justified.

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Re: "Final Phase of Fusion Quest" (N.I.F.)

Post by Richard Hull »

Mark has read all my many NIF related postings over the years and took them to heart.

All funding was for a desparate need for strategic stockpile research, development and management. This will allow clandestine thermo-nuclear testing of hydrogen weapons aimed at deliverable weapon size reduction and improvement of their efficiency.

The lipstick on this pig was given over totally to the name "NIF" - National Ignition Facility. The name sounds like fusion power to the people. Lotsa' money for this laudable goal.

"TNWDC" - Thermo-nuclear weapons development center was a big no-no.

I imagine a lot of great work on the stockpile modernization and upgrading has already been done. Now they have to try and play at justifying the lofty name. Apparently, their shade of pig friendly lipstick is on backorder, but it is expected to arrive real soon now.

The real work at NIF is rolling along just fine.

The PR department is just a bit mixed up.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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