OT: fusion is getting SOOOO close -> then comes fusion engines!!! ::P muhuhahah(no j

[Alpha Kodiak]

I just want to put Mr. Fusion on the back of my Delorean to power the flux capacitor. Is that asking so much?

[Cyrien]

Yes.

Mr. Fission is the king of miniaturization.
You can probably make incredibly small fission reactors that would work and produce energy. So long as you have a way to get rid of the waste products that is.

Mr. Fusion is the king of make it big. I doubt you could ever make a stable energy yielding fusion reaction that would fit in a car.

Let's not mention the flux capacitor and the probability of time travel.

[ December 04, 2003, 19:08: Message edited by: Cyrien ]

[ToddT]

Hmm Mr fusion may not be practical but, there is a table top device that can do small scale fusion reactions, it s for research applications. Unfortunately I don't remember all the details of the article.

As for the Unified theory, they have combined and confirmed in the lab the equations for Electromagnetism and the Weak Nuclear force a few years back. a detail that was mentioned recently on progress of some other research.

HE3 all I can really remember on that is that it solved some problems dealing with plasma densities required for reactions and such.

Their are several fusion reactor designs, funny thing is some are not actually new, just that computing technology has reached a point where the calculations required are now possible. Read about that in "Computing in Science and Engineering". Reactor design was referred to as a stellarator proposed back in the 50's.

As for fusion propulsion, I can't remember what the design was called but a reactor Soviet era design had some deficient that actually lent itself to propulsive use. The containment fields were weak at the ends, not desirable for a power reactor but if your looking for thrust.......

[Phoenix-D]

Hmm Mr fusion may not be practical but, there is a table top device that can do small scale fusion reactions, it s for research applications. Unfortunately I don't remember all the details of the article."

Yes, you can. Unfortunately there's a bit of a detail you missed..it takes more energy than it produces!

[Cyrien]

Yep. That is why bigger is better with fusion. In order to start it up you need really strong lasers in order to contain it you need a super strong magnetic field. All this takes energy. So the key is to get a big enough fusion reaction so that the amount of energy you put out is greater than that which you put in. IE: You need size. You get larger and larger energy outputs and the energy required to start it remains static and the energy required for containment increases much much slower than the output. In addition you want to reach ignition or very close to it for maximum energy output. Ignition means you no longer need outside energy input to sustain the reaction. It is a self sustaining reaction. This requires size. When was the Last time you saw a small star?

You can have all the small fusion reactions you want. You just won't get any more energy from it than you put in, not unless you can figure out how to A> Start it without using lots of energy B> Contain it without using lots of energy C> Get a low level ignition or near ignition.

While A and B might eventually be overcome C itself defies our understanding of physics and thus can be considered impossible, at least in our lifetimes I would bet.

Thus no small fusion reactions to power things like cars etc... at least not directly.

Use a battery charge it using plentiful fusion energy and then run a car on that.

[ToddT]

should have cleared up one thing when I said research purposes, it was not energy related.
i did say, not practical, not immpossible.

[PvK]

Right - the point is to have a fusion device in your car just to be cool, and what better than an energy-reducing device, to be cool...

PvK