Nuclear fusion project takes key step in lab test

[Sollydog]

Re: Nuclear fusion project takes key step in lab test

Lockheed says they will build a compact reactor in a year:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/fusion-breakthrough-well-build-compact-reactor-year-lockheed-n226641

[Emily]

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/02/12/n...p-in-lab-test/

Nuclear fusion project takes key step in lab test
Posted on February 12, 2014 at 4:49 pm by Associated Press in Nuclear

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Nuclear fusion would be worthwhile only if it produces more energy than it uses, and the results were far from that. The hydrogen fuel did emit more energy than it absorbed from the lasers, an experimental goal. But the fuel took in only about 1 percent of all the energy produced by the lasers. So the apparatus is still far short of producing more energy than it requires to operate.

Another key finding was evidence that energy created by the fusion reaction was going back into the remaining fuel, a ?bootstrapping? process that is key to boosting the energy output.

?Seeing that kick in is quite exciting, and it does show that there is promise? for increasing the energy output, said Omar Hurricane, lead author on the Nature paper. It?s not clear when researchers will be able to get more energy out of the reaction than the lasers pour into it, he said, but ?we are working like mad ? in that direction.?

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Scientists elsewhere are working on a different approach to fusion power, one that uses magnetic fields to contain super-heated hydrogen fuel. Several nations are cooperating to build a huge experimental device to explore that approach in France