We don't know a whole lot about the July 30 testing yet as NIF has yet to release its official findings, but per this article it seems like the reaction again achieved self-heating. This is the...
We don't know a whole lot about the July 30 testing yet as NIF has yet to release its official findings, but per this article it seems like the reaction again achieved self-heating.
In addition, the December experiment achieved self-heating: a state where the fusion reaction powered itself, like a fire that no longer needs stoking. Many scientists think self-heating is a prerequisite to generating power in ICF. Outside scientists speculate that NIF’s new experiment also achieved self-heating.
This is the dream, and something the author of this blog failed to even so much as mention. Initial energy input matters a whole lot less when you don't need to spend any to continue the reaction. All you need is time to achieve net energy gain at that point. Self-heating is the grail that makes even these small outputs ultimately limitless energy.
NIF isn't a facility dedicated to fusion, so that they were able to achieve and then repeat this process is monumental. A facility designed solely toward the advancement of fusion would be able to take this work and expand on it very quickly. This would seem like something that would be an ultimate imperative for an author that feels like this:
It seems quite clear that the track we are on does not lead to the stars, but to ignominious self-termination of this whacky mode called modernity. It simply does not add up, once the mythology is stripped away. The venture capitalist of nature is about to slam the door on our faces.
You have to have Kitty Hawk, before you can have a schedule of regular passenger flights. That author's mistaken students aside, I think most people understand that we barely had Kitty Hawk.
You have to have Kitty Hawk, before you can have a schedule of regular passenger flights.
That author's mistaken students aside, I think most people understand that we barely had Kitty Hawk.
We don't know a whole lot about the July 30 testing yet as NIF has yet to release its official findings, but per this article it seems like the reaction again achieved self-heating.
This is the dream, and something the author of this blog failed to even so much as mention. Initial energy input matters a whole lot less when you don't need to spend any to continue the reaction. All you need is time to achieve net energy gain at that point. Self-heating is the grail that makes even these small outputs ultimately limitless energy.
NIF isn't a facility dedicated to fusion, so that they were able to achieve and then repeat this process is monumental. A facility designed solely toward the advancement of fusion would be able to take this work and expand on it very quickly. This would seem like something that would be an ultimate imperative for an author that feels like this:
You have to have Kitty Hawk, before you can have a schedule of regular passenger flights.
That author's mistaken students aside, I think most people understand that we barely had Kitty Hawk.