Gizmodo
If you live in San Francisco's Bay Area and your name is Darth Vader, head to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the hottest laser action in the galaxy. Instead of destroying planets, however, the $3-billion National Ignition Facility will be used to fuse hydrogen atoms to create a small star and, in theory, get us closer to an endless power source. A PBS crew got into the facility to film it, and the only thing that comes to mind is "impressive. Very Impressive." The process is fascinating.
It all starts with a single laser, which is split into 48 separate beams. The beams are then redirected using mirrors into amplifiers—previously pumped by a total of 7,680 Xenon flash lamps— and, after four bounces, they are further split into 192 rays through all the facility—which is the size of three football fields. As they travel through those endless tubes they will be amplified again at an exponential rate.
The result: from a tiny 1/billionth of a joule laser, the scientists at the National Ignition Facility will end up with rays "a foot on the their side" with a combined "1.8 million joules of ultraviolet energy", 1,000 times the energy of all the power plants in the United States combined. That's five trillion watts (and as any numbnuts know, a trillion is more than a million.)
The lasers will then compress the frozen hydrogen fuel cell pictured here, which will be enclosed in a gold-plated cylinder called the hohlraum. The hohlraum—which was probably brought through a Stargate— is located inside the 32.8-foot-diameter ignition chamber, and it will transforms the lasers into extremely intense X-rays, compressing the hydrogen at one hundred billion atmospheres in just 1/1,000,000 of a second.
This will trigger a controlled nuclear fusion reaction that will create a small star, hopefully generating more power than the energy used to fire the laser and contain the intense heat inside the chamber.
All this in theory. The questions is:
I'm leaning to the third option. Good bye, California. It was good while it lasted. Your only hope: that Europe vaporizes the solar system first with their Large Hadron Collider. [National Ignition Facility, NIF at Wikipedia, FusEdWeb, and Lasers at Wikipedia via Quest]
Comments
If I read that right, they spent 3 BILLION dollars to test a theory? Man, I hope that works out for 'em.
well you either get a star, or just put your enemy where they hydrogen would have gone and ask them to watch for the pretty light...
Is it just me, or the guy looks eerily like Doc Ock...
Yes it will work. But here in America, democrats don't let us have nuclear power.
This should be interesting.
Sounds more like something out of Spidy2 than Stargate. Especially with the gold coated pellet.
I like how the video tells you it was produced in HD, but then you have this little itty bitty video... nice job on the HD there guys...
if it fails at least they can claim the title of the worlds most expensive back hair remover.
5 hundred trillion watts, that is.
Yowza.
How may pews per watt?
or... it will create a black hole ;)
Doc Oc did it...
Bye Bye CawleeFornya!
@chrisaroz: Normally you just spend billions on theories if you are 99,999999999999999999999% sure that it will work out.
@Hestika: I think you start getting pews at around 100 thousand watts, so its gonna be a lot
$3billion? hmm, thats only a few days in Iraq. Just imagine what we could have today if we didnt care about oil companies...
@stinkyboy: You know you're maybe 10-15 years out of date with that right?
@chrisaroz: I think they are testing a hypothesis, it isn't a "theory" unless it works.
I was torn between blowing up CA or opening a vortex to invading armies...as I live in CA, my ass won
Better get that 13-year old german boy to check their math first before they fire that thing...I like the odds of an asteroid taking me out over getting my personal space singed by star-intense balls of heat
@TheAdAgency: I believe a "theory" is a tested hypothesis where the evidence suggested that it is correct, but it's not proven.
@baltwade: I believe you are correct, thank you for extending and correcting my semantic correction.
It's a small scale prototype for a Death Star. Step 1. Create Death Star Step 2. Destroy Alderaan
It's a prototype for a Death Star. Step 1.) Create Death Star Step 2.) Destroy Alderaan
They're gonna need some help with their electric bills to get that thing working.
For me, the key phrase here is "Controlled Fusion." I just don't see that happening.
@stinkyboy:
1. That's nuclear fission. This is nuclear fusion. Fall asleep in your high school physics class much?
2. You should be grateful. Exactly how many hollow mountains do you think there are in Nevada?
ITER will beat you to Q > 1(power consumed = power produced), National Ignition Facility . . how's ya like them internationally funded tokamaks?
So that fusion-thingy in Spider-Man 2 was realistic after all...
@Empire: Currently there is absolutely 0 nuclear waste in that "hollow mountain in Nevada". Almost all nuclear waste is being stored at or near the power plants, which are dangerously close to most major cities and water supplies. The state of Nevada has refused to allow any waste to be transfered into its borders despite being the current best solution for long term storage. Also America doesn't allow recycling of nuclear waste. The main waste created by Uranium rods is plutonium, which works just as well at running power plants. Too bad it's illegal to recycle nuclear waste here in America, unlike in Europe...
That's just great....and I live in the Bay Area, and I didn't even hear about this until I read it up on Gizmodo.....Thank you Uncle Sam for telling me that California may fall off into the ocean because of this....
Very cool. Glad to see some big science is still going on.
I chose #3. Not a prediction, just wishful thinking.
BLACK HOLE !2010 end of world? :-ss
Good, Blowing Apophis out of the sky before it hits goes as planned.
On the other hand, if CERN makes a black hole, the gravity pull can bend the SF Laser beam in an impressive curve across Earth. Kewl.
Can it remove moles?
Battlemodo! CERN's blackhole vs LLNL's star! Which will kill us first????
@Argyle: So we ship all of our nuclear waste to Europe?
I foresee a Chuck Norris reference in the making...
Nice! Orichalcum will become reality! Just in time for the new Indy movie too!
@Argyle: ya for whatever reason the usa passed laws that decreed that it was illegal to reprocess waste. if those laws didn't exist the amount of nuclear waste would be drastically reduced, almost to the point that disposal is trivial
I say Cali is gone. However.....No big loss....
ah HA!! Incoming ransome note.
"Leaders of the world, unless we (the secret scientist league of... secret scientists,) receive ONE TRILLION dollars within 24 hours, we will create a black hole (CERN) and a small star simultaneously to destroy the earth!! (and/or take measurements if we fail)"
The end is nigh. /tinfoil hat
I found the article to be very interesting. I cannot wait to see what comes of it. It's always exciting when the scientists really have no clue.
NEW PIX OF THIS PUPPY IN FIRE TESTING: [www.popularmechanics.com]
Lol if anything goes wrong, its Bush's fault.
@thechansen: BATTLEMODO!!!!!!!
If they can amplify it to get that much energy out of so little energy, why don't they just do that?
Wouldn't that solve the energy problem too?
Of course they're going to blow up Cali. Don't you see the computers they're using in the video? They're all running Windows XP.
HAHAHAHA
What would I do with 3Billion Dollars...Hmmm.... *Goes to View Expensive Prons*
My Hot Tip:
The power supply in California is about to get might unpredictable.
"and if california falls into the ocean,
just the mystics, and statistics say it will
i predict this motel will be standing
until i pay my bill"
crap!!! re rack
"and if california falls into the ocean,
just like the mystics, and statistics say it will
i predict this motel will be standing
until i pay my bill"
Why don't we just use the petawatt laser in Texas? It's only $7 million.
Do not look into laser with remaining skull.
@stinkyboy: "Yes it will work. But here in America, Democrats don't let us have nuclear power."
Fusion should be fairly safe and very clean. You're probably right.
2.7778 * (10^(-7)) * 1 800 000 = 0.500004 kilowatt-hours.. hardly all the output of all of the power plants in the US...
okay so we're creating universes now. nice
@mastermatoro: Solar Cell Fields? Wind Energy?
Bah, needs more lasers.
It sounds pretty damn cool but I sur eam glad I don't live anywhere near it. Of course that isn't going to do me any good when the "star" that they create starts expanding on it's own and it engulfs the entire planet in a fireball as hot as the sun, but what're you gonna do?
.....so then i put it in my car?.....
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