Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Desktop Nuclear Fusion

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Desktop Nuclear Fusion

    April 27, 2005
    Researchers Say They Achieved Nuclear Fusion in Tabletop Experiment
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

    Filed at 1:57 p.m. ET

    LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In the latest attempt to create nuclear fusion under laboratory conditions, scientists reported they achieved it in a tabletop experiment that uses a strong electric field generated by a small crystal.

    While the energy created was too small to harness cheap fusion power, this new way of making nuclear fusion could have potential uses in the oil drilling industry and homeland security, said Seth Putterman, a physicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who conducted the study.

    The experiment's results appear in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

    For decades, scientists have sought to produce controllable nuclear fusion, the same power that lights the sun and stars. Fusion power has been touted as the ultimate solution to the world's energy needs and a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels like coal and oil, but even investigating potential ways of generating it requires building enormous reactors that cost millions of dollars.

    Previous claims of tabletop fusion have been met with skepticism and even derision by physicists.

    In one of the most notable cases, Dr. B. Stanley Pons of the University of Utah and Martin Fleischmann of Southampton University in England shocked the world in 1989 when they announced that they had achieved so-called cold fusion at room temperature. Their work was discredited after repeated attempts to reproduce it failed.

    Fusion experts noted that the UCLA experiment was credible because, unlike the 1989 work, it did not violate basic principles of physics.

    ''This doesn't have any controversy in it because they're using a tried and true method,'' said David Ruzic, professor of nuclear and plasma engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. ''There's no mystery in terms of the physics.''

    In fusion, light atoms are joined in a high-temperature process that frees large amounts of energy. Fusion produces virtually no air pollution and does not pose the safety and long-term radioactive waste concerns associated with modern nuclear power plants, where heavy uranium atoms are split to create energy in a process known as nuclear fission.

    In the UCLA experiment, scientists placed a tiny crystal that can generate a strong electric field into a vacuum chamber filled with deuterium gas, a form of hydrogen capable of fusion. Then the researchers activated the crystal by heating it.

    The resulting reaction gave off an isotope of helium along with subatomic particles known as neutrons, a characteristic of fusion. The experiment did not, however, produce more energy than the amount put in -- an achievement that would be a huge breakthrough.

    UCLA's Putterman said future experiments will focus on refining the technique for potential commercial uses, including designing portable neutron generators that could be used for oil well drilling or scanning luggage and cargo at airports.

    ----------

    On the Net:

    Nature journal: http://www.nature.com/nature

    University of California, Los Angeles: http://www.ucla.edu

    I went to a lecture by Pons and Fleischmann just a few days after their cold fusion announcement. At the time, I was involved in electrochemical process research and their claim was like money pouring into my hands. Unfortunately, no one else could reproduce their work.

  • #2
    Dilithium crystals?

    Dr.Mordrid
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
      Dilithium crystals?

      Dr.Mordrid
      Exactly what I was thinking.

      Comment


      • #4
        The experiment did not, however, produce more energy than the amount put in -- an achievement that would be a huge breakthrough.
        Yawn. Call me when my "Mr. Fusion" gets here.

        Kevin

        Comment


        • #5
          good maybe I finally power my cars with it!

          Comment


          • #6
            Bollocks!
            Brian (the devil incarnate)

            Comment


            • #7
              And again, the fusor isn't mentioned.

              Comment


              • #8
                Why should it be?
                Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Because with FUSOR's electrostatic confinement (TOKAMAK uses magnetic) tabletop fusion w/neutron production was ashieved in the 1950's using 110v US wall current. Today many amatures have working FUSOR's that can do likewise in their basements.

                  To say that research for the FUSOR systems has been underfunded is a gross understatement.

                  Dr. Mordrid
                  Dr. Mordrid
                  ----------------------------
                  An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

                  I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I know what it does, and how it works. But I've seen no way or theory as to how the FUSOR could net more energy than it uses.

                    The reason this "new" fusion bit is cool because it does neutron emission from something very small. It might be able to net energy from it, but it's unlikely.
                    Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      That "crystal fusion" thing does sound pretty cool, I was just annoyed at the media being so quick to make headlines like "Desktop Fusion discovered!!!1111OMG!!!"

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        More info, and while it's not dilithium it is a lithium compund called lithium tantalate (LiTaO3);

                        The central component of the device is a crystal of lithium tantalate, which belongs to a class of materials known as pyroelectrics. Pyroelectrics, which generate strong electric fields when heated or cooled, have long been known and possibly were described as far back as 314 B.C. by a student of Aristotle.

                        "It's quite a surprise to see it used in this way," Happer of Princeton said.

                        In the experiment, the crystal, a cylinder about an inch and a quarter in diameter and a half-inch in length, was mounted inside the footlong cylinder and surrounded by a gas of deuterium, a heavy version of hydrogen. Warming the crystal about 50 degrees Fahrenheit produced a charge of 1,000 volts. That created electric fields around a tungsten tip that were so strong that they ripped electrons off the deuterium and accelerated the charged deuterium ions into a target that also contained deuterium.

                        When one deuterium ion hit a deuterium atom, fusion occurred. Sometimes. But because only one in a million of the collisions actually produce fusion, the device is an inefficient generator of energy.
                        Applications: neutron sources, small thrusters for spacecraft etc. They expect to eventually get the size down to that of a chicken egg.

                        Dr. Mordrid
                        Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 29 April 2005, 09:01.
                        Dr. Mordrid
                        ----------------------------
                        An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

                        I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X