Dear Future
▻https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/dear-future-trailer
Dear Future is Motherboard and CNET’s new documentary series built on the premise that technology and science are still capable of wowing us. Fusion energy, DIY off-grid energy systems...
Lockheed says makes breakthrough on fusion energy project
▻http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/15/us-lockheed-fusion-idUKKCN0I41EM20141015
#Lockheed_Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had made a technological breakthrough in developing a power source based on nuclear #fusion, and the first reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck, could be ready for use in a decade.
Tom McGuire, who heads the project, said he and a small team had been working on fusion energy at Lockheed’s secretive Skunk Works for about four years, but were now going public to find potential partners in industry and government for their work.
Initial work demonstrated the feasibility of building a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet, which could fit on the back of a large truck, and is about 10 times smaller than current reactors, McGuire told reporters.
In a statement, the company, the Pentagon’s largest supplier, said it would build and test a compact fusion reactor in less than a year, and build a prototype in five years.
Ah ouais, quand même,…
Initial work demonstrated the feasibility of building a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet, which could fit on the back of a large truck, and is about 10 times smaller than current reactors, McGuire told reporters.
#Skunk_Works et aussi,… #serpent_de_mer !
Oui, désolé de m’être fait le relai de la pub de Lockheed Martin, ça sent les mecs qui cherchent des sous.
In the slick promotional video, McGuire describes fusion as “a high risk, high payoff endeavour”. Lockheed have come up with an idea and they want someone to give them some money so they can develop it.
Investment in fusion is exciting and potentially world-changing. But real breakthroughs occur when experiments actually take place.
▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/16/has-lockheed-martin-really-made-a-breakthrough-on-nuclear-fusion
D’autant que
the U.S. program was struggling to maintain a viable research program amid stagnant budgets and the growing financial commitment to ITER, which is consuming an increasingly large share of U.S. fusion funding
▻http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2014/10/u-s-fusion-plan-draws-blistering-critique
Non, non, t’excuse pas : ça donne une bonne occasion de rigoler sur des sujets qui ne s’y prêtent pas toujours. L’article du Guardian vaut son pesant de cacahuètes !
Professor Steven Cowley, director of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, says he is “nonplussed”. According to Cowley, Lockheed had said “all the usual things about how it’s going to save the world and how nice it would be if [the reactor] was small” but failed to produce any details upon which their success can be judged.
Vous rigolerez moins quand ils remplaceront la production gaz de schiste par un seul camion à fusion ! LM, c’est pas les gens qui tentent de faire voler l’avion en bois du dernier sommet de l’OTAN ?
Excellent, #merci, tout l’article est un régal…
But a quick look at the defense contractor’s ambitious plan—a working reactor in five years—already shows the dream fraying around the edges. A year and a half ago, the company promised that fusion was four years away, meaning that the schedule is already slipping. Negative one years of progress in 20 months is, sadly, business as usual for fusion.
Au début, on s’y perd un peu sur la datation de l’article (janvier 2013, rendant compte de l’annonce d’octobre 2014), mais ça fait aussi partie du jeu : on peut le garder sous le coude…
We’re One Step Closer to Nuclear Fusion Energy - Wired Science
▻http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/02/fusion-power-not-yet
Scientists with the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced today that they have achieved a critical step in fusion research: For the first time, their hydrogen fuel has given off more energy than it took in.
Though an important milestone, the result does not mean that your Delorean is soon going to sport a Mr. Fusion reactor. NIF would need to sustain temperatures and pressures much greater than they are currently capable of before they can harness fusion energy.
Still, a future with fusion power is starting to look more possible. A European team is also attempting to generate fusion energy at the $20 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) currently under construction in France. That facility will trap superheated hydrogen plasma in a donut-shaped magnetic chamber, an entirely different technique than what has been achieved at NIF, meaning that the lessons from the Livermore Lab won’t be entirely applicable. Rather than set unrealistic deadlines, ITER is moving forward at a very slow and steady pace.