Giant laser {fusion} experiment powers up (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

The US has finished constructing a huge physics experiment aimed at recreating conditions at the heart of our Sun.

The US National Ignition Facility is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion, a process that could offer abundant clean energy.

The lab will kick-start the reaction by focusing 192 giant laser beams on a tiny pellet of hydrogen fuel.

To work, it must show that more energy can be extracted from the process than is required to initiate it.

Professor Mike Dunne, who leads a European venture that is also pursuing nuclear fusion with lasers, told BBC News that if NIF was successful, it would be a "seismic event".
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7972865.stm

[drm604]

1. "Seismic event" describes it well.

This could be very big. :bounce:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Hey Glick, what's that cinder over there.... oh, that's where we

forgot to stop the fusion experiments the humans were dicking around with. I think we went bowling that night.

[jimlup]

3. This is years behind schedule and way over budget

Plus even if they achieve the holy grail of "break even fusion" there is no practical way to extract that energy.

Make no mistake, the purpose of NIF is to test plasma fusion models that simulate conditions during the explosion of a H-Bomb and that is the primary purpose of this machine.