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The Mirror Fusion Test Facility (2023)

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Re: The Mirror Fusion Test Facility (2023)

#21

Post by doubloon »

rqtwteye wrote: post #13
SaberTail wrote: post #11

> Only in December of 2022 did scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announce that they had achieved the first recorded fusion reaction with a net energy gain We've been achieving fusion reactions with net energy gain since the 1950s, when hydrogen bombs were developed. And, on top of that, the achievement they're talking about was more energy out than light energy…

It’s pretty crazy that they are still working on improving nuclear bombs. If there is one area where the current state is “good enough” it should be that area. I can see the need for maintaining what we have already but why try to advance the technology? A pure fusion bomb would be cleaner as far as I know but do we really want to make nuclear war more feasible?

if we do not maintain expertise in nuclear weapons then we will end up like Ukraine.

Re: The Mirror Fusion Test Facility (2023)

#26

Post by [deleted] »

keepamovin wrote: post #16

This is such a tragedy. So ridiculous it just wreaks of corruption. Energy industry threatened by new tech. To not even turn it on? And collect the data? Like the Darkstar Mach 10 test day shutdown scene by the “Drone Ranger” in Top Gun: Maverick Oh well perhaps if the magnet mirrors still exist they can be repurposed by the Guggenheim for an installation. Beautiful sculpture!! Hehe :)

[deleted]

Re: The Mirror Fusion Test Facility (2023)

#28

Post by jtriangle »

rqtwteye wrote: post #13
SaberTail wrote: post #11

> Only in December of 2022 did scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announce that they had achieved the first recorded fusion reaction with a net energy gain We've been achieving fusion reactions with net energy gain since the 1950s, when hydrogen bombs were developed. And, on top of that, the achievement they're talking about was more energy out than light energy…

It’s pretty crazy that they are still working on improving nuclear bombs. If there is one area where the current state is “good enough” it should be that area. I can see the need for maintaining what we have already but why try to advance the technology? A pure fusion bomb would be cleaner as far as I know but do we really want to make nuclear war more feasible?

It depends on your answer to the question, is nuclear war inevitable?

If it is, making weapons that are as clean as possible is a reasonable goal. If you get some knowledge that's applicable elsewhere, that's a nice bonus.

If you don't think it's inevitable, you can likely justify making them cleaner because it will likely have applications elsewhere by the logic of fusion weapons being the only place we've been able to harvest usable energy thusfar.

Re: The Mirror Fusion Test Facility (2023)

#29

Post by SaberTail »

jtriangle wrote: post #28
rqtwteye wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty crazy that they are still working on improving nuclear bombs. If there is one area where the current state is “good enough” it should be that area. I can see the need for maintaining what we have already but why try to advance the technology? A pure fusion bomb would be cleaner as far as I know but do we really want to make nuclear war more feasible?

It depends on your answer to the question, is nuclear war inevitable? If it is, making weapons that are as clean as possible is a reasonable goal. If you get some knowledge that's applicable elsewhere, that's a nice bonus. If you don't think it's inevitable, you can likely justify making them cleaner because it will likely have applications elsewhere by the logic of fusion weapons being the only place we've been able…

The difficulty with "clean fusion bombs" is that bomb makers can always increase the yield of a fusion bomb by making it dirty. Fusion releases neutrons, and these neutrons have enough energy to fission the common 238 isotope of uranium, which releases roughly 100 times more energy than than the neutron started with.
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