On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 3:45 PM, MarkI-ZeroPoint <[email protected]>wrote:
“An in-depth analysis by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's > Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) zeroed in on tiny, bubble-like > islands that appear in the hot, charged gases—or plasmas—during > experiments. These minute islands collect impurities that cool the plasma. > And it is these islands, the scientists report in the April 20 issue of > Physical Review Letters, that are at the root of a long-standing problem > known as the "density limit" that can prevent fusion reactors from > operating at maximum efficiency.” > I used to think hot fusion was more than just a possible source of large amounts of energy -- as a child I thought there was something beautiful about harnessing the power of the sun. Now that I've become more acquainted with some of the current designs -- the molten lithium blanket to capture the heat; the embrittlement and the blistering of the vessel walls, which would need to be replaced every few decades; the Rube Goldberg of a massive and complex supporting infrastructure; the gold pellets dropping through the center of the core at however many number per second -- you could almost reject whole classes of design on aesthetic grounds alone. Someone should have come along and looked at the proposals and said, "That's too complex. It's going to fall apart or be very expensive to keep working. We need to come up with something simpler and easier to maintain." Eric
