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  1. #2361
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    Quote Originally Posted by DevilHorse View Post
    Today at 10am, a self sustained Fusion Reaction at Lawrence Livermore Labs (LLL) in California will be announced.
    https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...es-2022-12-12/

    The potential impacts of this are staggering for the world's energy supply and infrastructure.

    Imagine all of the world's existing Nuclear (Fission) Power Plants becoming obsolete. No more storing of nuclear waste. Abundant clean/green energy available for lower cost. Very timely when you're talking about the increase in EV production/usage and need for significantly more electricity to power them. Apparently, the day will come when coal plants that produce electricity will definitely disappear.

    The actual building of a plant will take 1-2 decades, and surely there are some problems to solve here, but nothing insurmountable.

    Background: Nuclear reactions are different in process and product; note the difference between an atomic bomb (fission) and a hydrogen bomb (fusion). Edward Teller, perhaps the greatest modern physicist not to win a Nobel Prize because of political issues, was the original proponent of fusion reactions back in the 1940s. At the time, it was his view that to get a fusion reaction going you needed a fission reaction to ignite it (at the heart of a hydrogen bomb is an atomic bomb); in other words HUGE ENERGY is needed to start it. Since the 1940s, physicists have been trying to create a fusion reaction that is self sustaining because of the obvious benefits. The fuel is not Uranium (radioactive and rare to amass in bulk), but Hydrogen (the most plentiful element in the galaxy, and otherwise benign). The biproduct of hydrogen fusion is Helium (not quite as plentiful, but an inert Nobel Gas).

    There are a number of other Fusion Reaction experiments (i.e., Tokomak reactors) that have been going on around the country/world for years. Whether this discovery will enhance the progress using those methods or not I can't say.

    Remember Cold Fusion (the hoax)? Huge hubbub at the time around that because the implications were staggering.

    Larry
    DevilHorse
    Thanks Larry, you always put these sorts of things in accessible ways!

  2. #2362
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly
    Y’all see that Val Kilmer movie The Saint? Cool movie about fusion.

  3. #2363
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington, DC area
    Color me a (hopeful) sceptic. They’ve been touting fusion since at least the 70s when I started paying attention in HS.

    It’ll be nice when it finally becomes viable, though.

    -jk

  4. #2364
    You guys are thinking about all the wonderful things that fusion can accomplish, and I’m wondering if we are all going to talk like munchkins due to the excessive helium.

  5. #2365
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Durham, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by fidel View Post
    You guys are thinking about all the wonderful things that fusion can accomplish, and I’m wondering if we are all going to talk like munchkins due to the excessive helium.
    I was thinking it would solve the helium shortages we've had lately.

  6. #2366
    Quote Originally Posted by fidel View Post
    You guys are thinking about all the wonderful things that fusion can accomplish, and I’m wondering if we are all going to talk like munchkins due to the excessive helium.
    The reason for the helium shortage, and why there will be no atmospheric build-up, is that Helium (and Hydrogen BTW) atoms are more energetic than the earth's gravity can hold; in other words, the velocity of a Helium atom at ambient temperatures is greater than the nominal escape velocity of earth. Obviously not the case with Oxygen and Nitrogen, which are earthbound. Any Helium that is not recaptured will leave the earth and go into space. Most helium using facilities (i.e., MRI locations) attempt to recycle the Helium. We had a Helium liquifier at Duke; most of our Helium from experiments were recycled and re-liquified.

    Pipes were run through the engineering parking lot (from the Physics building) to Duke Med to allow the recycling of burned off Helium, from MRIs. The other alternative was to fill a blimp with Helium, over Duke Med, and fly it over to the Physics Building to re-liquefy (this an actual proposal although it sounds like tongue in cheek, it was a real proposal). Even so, 10-30 percent of the Helium is lost, but the economics make it still worth it.

    Larry
    DevilHorse

  7. #2367
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Greenville, SC
    Quote Originally Posted by DevilHorse View Post
    The reason for the helium shortage, and why there will be no atmospheric build-up, is that Helium (and Hydrogen BTW) atoms are more energetic than the earth's gravity can hold; in other words, the velocity of a Helium atom at ambient temperatures is greater than the nominal escape velocity of earth. Obviously not the case with Oxygen and Nitrogen, which are earthbound. Any Helium that is not recaptured will leave the earth and go into space. Most helium using facilities (i.e., MRI locations) attempt to recycle the Helium. We had a Helium liquifier at Duke; most of our Helium from experiments were recycled and re-liquified.

    Pipes were run through the engineering parking lot (from the Physics building) to Duke Med to allow the recycling of burned off Helium, from MRIs. The other alternative was to fill a blimp with Helium, over Duke Med, and fly it over to the Physics Building to re-liquefy (this an actual proposal although it sounds like tongue in cheek, it was a real proposal). Even so, 10-30 percent of the Helium is lost, but the economics make it still worth it.

    Larry
    DevilHorse
    That sounds really cool*.


    *Both figuratively and literally.

  8. #2368
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly
    Always a fear of mine when visiting aquariums.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/huge-berl...080241308.html

  9. #2369
    Quote Originally Posted by bundabergdevil View Post
    Always a fear of mine when visiting aquariums.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/huge-berl...080241308.html
    Ughhhh saw this today. I love aquariums. All those animals... Oof.

  10. #2370
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    Just be thankful that the rank was not filled with sharks, jellyfish, or ill-tempered sea bass.

  11. #2371
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Santa Cruz CA
    Patriots/Raiders ending.
    Surprised nobody posted this one yet. I guess we all just assumed everyone saw this already.
    When I saw this while watching the game, I was thinking this is the most epic failure I have ever seen in a game.

    https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...ocial-reaction

    Check out the NE coaches on the sideline around the 30 second mark when they show the wide replay.

  12. #2372
    I'm uncertain if this is the proper thread to post this story, but I thought it merited sharing.

    "Buffalo woman saves man with severe frostbite after getting him out of the storm and pleading for help in a Facebook livestream"
    https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/27/us/bu...ook/index.html

    buffalo snow storm.jpg

  13. #2373
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly

  14. #2374
    Quote Originally Posted by bundabergdevil View Post
    Wonder what his wife or girlfriend thinks. Wait...he's single?

  15. #2375
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly
    Quote Originally Posted by ClemmonsDevil View Post
    Wonder what his wife or girlfriend thinks. Wait...he's single?
    He is. Been ruff on him, too.

  16. #2376
    Quote Originally Posted by bundabergdevil View Post
    He is. Been ruff on him, too.
    I shouldn't have said that. I have no dog in this fight

  17. #2377
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly
    Quote Originally Posted by ClemmonsDevil View Post
    I shouldn't have said that. I have no dog in this fight
    Look at you! You’re paw grown up, punwise!

  18. #2378
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Location
    Dur'm
    If you have not been following the Greta Thunberg v. Andrew Tate saga, please go look it up. Then you'll have the necessary context to enjoy this spectacular Tweet:

    Thunberg Tweet.jpg

  19. #2379
    Quote Originally Posted by Phredd3 View Post
    If you have not been following the Greta Thunberg v. Andrew Tate saga, please go look it up. Then you'll have the necessary context to enjoy this spectacular Tweet:

    Thunberg Tweet.jpg
    It's a rather remarkable chain of events.

  20. #2380
    Quote Originally Posted by Phredd3 View Post
    If you have not been following the Greta Thunberg v. Andrew Tate saga, please go look it up. Then you'll have the necessary context to enjoy this spectacular Tweet:

    Thunberg Tweet.jpg
    It was shared with me yesterday with the joke that I have basically the same email she shared with him, just ending in .edu. Hurtful. Also he got picked up for human trafficking and rape based on his location during the text exchange. Greta definitely won this battle.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/romania-detains-ex-kickboxer-andrew-tate-human-trafficking-case-2022-12-30/

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