m**e
发帖数: 857 | 1 So Far Unfruitful, Fusion Project Faces a Frugal Congress
NY Times
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: September 29, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/science/fusion-project-faces-
For more than 50 years, physicists have been eager to achieve controlled
fusion, an elusive goal that could potentially offer a boundless and
inexpensive source of energy.
The laser uses blasts of concentrated light to compress, heat and ignite
tiny capsules of hydrogen fuel, above. The goal of the project is to one day
achieve controlled fusion.
To do so, American scientists have built a giant laser, now the size of a
football stadium, that takes target practice on specks of fuel smaller than
peppercorns. The device has so far cost taxpayers more than $5 billion,
making it one of the most expensive federally financed science projects ever
. But so far, it has not worked.
Unfortunately, the due date is Sunday, the last day of the fiscal year. And
Congress, which would need to allocate more money to keep the project alive,
is going to want some explanations.
“We didn’t achieve the goal,” said Donald L. Cook, an official at the
National Nuclear Security Administration who oversees the laser project.
Rather than predicting when it might succeed, he added in an interview, “we
’re going to settle into a serious investigation” of what caused the
unforeseen snags.
The failure could have broad repercussions not only for the big laser, which
is based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, but
also for federally financed science projects in general.
On one hand, the laser’s defenders point out, hard science is by definition
risky, and no serious progress is possible without occasional failures. On
the other, federal science initiatives seldom disappoint on such a
gargantuan scale, and the setback comes in an era of tough fiscal choices
and skepticism about science among some lawmakers. The laser team will have
to produce a report for Congress about what might have gone wrong and how to
fix it if given more time.
“The question is whether you continue to pour money into it or start over,
” said Stephen Bodner, a former director of a rival laser effort at the
Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. “I think they’re in real trouble
and that continuing the funding at the current level makes no sense.”
China is studying the program’s mistakes, Dr. Bodner added, perhaps with a
goal of building an improved machine.
“It’s kind of an amazing device,” said William Happer, a physicist at
Princeton University who directed federal energy research for the first
President George Bush. “Still, it’s not science if you don’t fail now and
then. But you do have to have some wins.”
Many science analysts predict that the big laser will survive, because its
powerful beams can still squeeze materials to extraordinarily high pressures
, temperatures and densities that are useful in safeguarding the nation’s
nuclear arms — a goal that attracts bipartisan support. For instance, the
laser might help engineers see if a particular metal part that had to be
substituted in a class of aging nuclear arms would still work as needed.
Even so, skeptics outside the government have long assailed the laser
project, known as the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, as a colossal
waste of money. Just operating it, officials concede, costs roughly $290
million a year. Some doubters have ridiculed it as the National Almost
Ignition Facility, or NAIF.
Big science projects more costly than the laser include NASA’s newest space
telescope, whose price tag now runs to more than $8 billion, and the 17-
mile circular accelerator in Europe that recently helped pin down the
elusive subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson. It cost about $10
billion.
In interviews, the laser’s architects and supporters at the Livermore lab
defended the device as working beautifully and pointed to the challenge of
planned breakthroughs as the fundamental problem.
“It’s like having a cure for cancer by a certain date,” said Penrose C.
Albright, the laboratory’s director. “I understand why people want to have
milestones. But when you’re dealing with science and Mother Nature, all
you really can do is agree on whether you’re on the right path.”
The sprawling laser complex, the officials insisted, would one day achieve
its advertised goal: fusing the hydrogen atoms in a speck of fuel into
helium, and thus creating what physicists liken to a tiny star.
“Contrary to what some people say, this has been a spectacular success,”
said Edward Moses, the laser’s director. Even so, he added, “science on
schedule is a hard thing to do.” | d*b
发帖数: 21830 | 2 又一个SSC，美国政客就这水平
day
【在 m**e 的大作中提到】
: So Far Unfruitful, Fusion Project Faces a Frugal Congress
: NY Times
: By WILLIAM J. BROAD
: Published: September 29, 2012
: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/science/fusion-project-faces-
: For more than 50 years, physicists have been eager to achieve controlled
: fusion, an elusive goal that could potentially offer a boundless and
: inexpensive source of energy.
: The laser uses blasts of concentrated light to compress, heat and ignite
: tiny capsules of hydrogen fuel, above. The goal of the project is to one day
| w*********g
发帖数: 30882 | 3 指望美国搞出核聚变商用反应堆是不现实的
因为一旦核聚变商用反应堆投入使用，美国的石油美元就完蛋了，全世界的人都会从大
海里面提取氚和氘，没有人再会储存大量美元去买石油了。
所以美国人不会干这样的傻事的。顶多是向全世界证明核聚变搞不出来，同时努力遏止
住世界各国实现核聚变的企图罢了 | b****l
发帖数: 23606 | 4 分特, 海水里面的氚氘不具备商业价值. 提取需要的能量超多释放的能量.
只能用来做武器.
【在 w*********g 的大作中提到】
: 指望美国搞出核聚变商用反应堆是不现实的
: 因为一旦核聚变商用反应堆投入使用，美国的石油美元就完蛋了，全世界的人都会从大
: 海里面提取氚和氘，没有人再会储存大量美元去买石油了。
: 所以美国人不会干这样的傻事的。顶多是向全世界证明核聚变搞不出来，同时努力遏止
: 住世界各国实现核聚变的企图罢了
| w*********g
发帖数: 30882 | 5
link, please?
【在 b****l 的大作中提到】
: 分特, 海水里面的氚氘不具备商业价值. 提取需要的能量超多释放的能量.
: 只能用来做武器.
| a***x
发帖数: 1303 | 6 college physics volume 3.
【在 w*********g 的大作中提到】
:
: link, please?
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