New Steps Made Toward Unlimited Energy: NIF Complete

[Yodel]

Holy shoes. The National Ignition Facility is complete.

They say that they will start generating more power than what is expended during the ignition process in around 3 years. That means productive fusion power! That will be a great day for all mankind, if it ever happens.

Discuss. Do you think the technology will ever become practical enough for widespread use in power plants?

[warlord]

If there is the demand it will eventualy become practical.

[Aumaan Anubis]

Within two or three years it is hoped the experiments will see more energy being created through the fusion process than is being used, thus providing an unlimited but clean source of fuel.

I thought there was a physical law against that... hmmm...
They've probably got some "method" of theirs that does whatever to do... whatever they want.

One can only dream.

[Yodel]

They're not breaking the laws of physics, they're probably just improving the efficiency of the reaction.

[Aumaan Anubis]

Am I missing something? The Law of Conservation of Energy seems to directly oppose what they're saying.

more energy being created through the fusion process than is being used

Energy cannot be created or destroyed.

If you're getting more energy than is being used, then you're "creating" energy.

And even so, in a thermal process(relatively certain that "nuclear fusion" falls under that category), energy conversion efficiency can't achieve even 100% efficiency. Creating energy is... above... 100%.
Hence, why it shouldn't work.

Am I missing something? Maybe misreading what they're trying to say, or maybe just not knowledgeable enough on the subject.

Whatever. If it works, then Awesome.

[GametagAeonFlux]

inb4californiaiswipedoffthemap

[shadowkhas]

By your analysis then, Aumaan, how does a (relatively) small charge in the ignition of a nuclear weapon produce such a large destructive energy?
"Creating" energy is the wrong terminology used in that sentence. Rather, accessed would probably be more proper from what I understand.

[Tural]

Correct. They are able to use more energy through the process than would otherwise be used from the materials being input. They're able to utilize the energy output more effectively than they would be through other processes of the input materials. When they're saying "energy," it's not to be interpreted literally like that, they obviously don't mean they're creating energy entirely. Common sense should tell you that.

[GametagAeonFlux]

[shadowkhas]

Wait...what?

[Veegie]

Energy.

[DrXThirst]

lol

[Thien]

Am I missing something? The Law of Conservation of Energy seems to directly oppose what they're saying.

more energy being created through the fusion process than is being used

Energy cannot be created or destroyed.

If you're getting more energy than is being used, then you're "creating" energy.

And even so, in a thermal process(relatively certain that "nuclear fusion" falls under that category), energy conversion efficiency can't achieve even 100% efficiency. Creating energy is... above... 100%.
Hence, why it shouldn't work.

Am I missing something? Maybe misreading what they're trying to say, or maybe just not knowledgeable enough on the subject.

Whatever. If it works, then Awesome.

when they say that they mean that they are getting more energy out of the process than they put into it, so like with gasoline, the energy output is about 3 to 1 whereas the 3 is the energy being released, and 1 being the energy put into refining it, and extracting etc.
Basically, more bang for your buck principle going on.

Edit: damnit, tural beat me to the punch

[Tural]

'Energy being released' is a good way to say it, I hadn't come up with that in my stream of consciousness.

[warlord]

'Energy being released' is a good way to say it, I hadn't come up with that in my stream of consciousness.

They are basicly converting matter to energy, same principle stars work on but on a much smaller scale in this case.

[mxrider108]

Isn't that also part of the idea of "potential energy"?

[shadowkhas]

Isn't that also part of the idea of "potential energy"?

"Perpetual."**