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From: mwg@petrus.UUCP (Mark Garrett)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: FUSION at LLNL
Message-ID: <407@petrus.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Jul-85 09:46:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: petrus.407
Posted: Thu Jul 18 09:46:49 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Jul-85 07:39:43 EDT
References: <291@greipa.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 30

++
> BTW, isn't the new NOVA laser supposed to 'break even' in energy
> input/output? Does anyone know anything about this?
> I know the original shiva used a lithium 'waterfall' to capture some
> of the energy (presumably to be thrown away), what scheme
> have they devised this time?
> 			Jordan K. Hubbard

When I was there a couple summers ago, the guy who gave us the grand tour
said they expected to do an experiment, in four or five years, that would
determine the feasibility of having commercial-style fusion reactors in
20 years.  They were schedualed to have the first "break even" experiment
in the next two or three trials (from July 1982).  I have heard since that
they've had some dissapointments.

The liquid lithium waterfall idea was never implemented.  Think about the
scale involved here.  The idea is that the reaction area is surrounded by
a continuous flow of molton lithium metal on all sides, which will absorb
all the heat of a fusion explosion produced by twenty laser beams, each a
foot in diameter and the length of a large building, focused on a small
pellet of fusion material.  The laser pulse lasts for one nanosecond, after
which the laser must be cooled for 8 hours before being fired again so that
the glass lenses and plates containing the lasing medium don't melt!  The
absorbed energy (which is much more than that of the driving laser) is
carried away by the lithium and used to boil water and make electricity.

This explanation was really devised to complete the power-plant senerio
to satisfy senators, and the-people-with-the-money.  They really weren't
prepared to say how it would be done when they got to that part.
-MWG