http://www.exduco.net/news.php?id=2897New 'Snapshots' Aid Quest For Fusion Energy - 2008-03-04
Physicists at MIT and the University of Rochester have devised a new way to take "snapshots" of the high-energy, high-temperature reactions seen as key to achieving the long-held dream of controlled nuclear fusion.
The work, which is reported in the Feb. 28 issue of Science, could one day help scientists harness nuclear fusion as an energy source. It could also shed light on basic questions about the physics of stars.
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The new detection method allows scientists, for the first time, to take a snapshot of the electric and magnetic fields generated by the implosion.
The process requires two implosions: one to be studied, and a second that serves to illuminate the first implosion. The first implosion lasts about three nanoseconds (billionths of a second) and the second one can be timed to go off anytime within those three nanoseconds.
The second implosion generates a stream of protons that all have the same energy level, 15 million electron volts. Because protons are charged, their paths are influenced by the fields surrounding the first implosion. These protons can be recorded, just like photons, to create an image of the fields' effects. Photons, however, are unaffected by such fields and thus cannot detect their presence.
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