there might not be a Homme d'Araignée to save le monde from Docteur Poulpe?

Wow, what is up with all of the fusion and magnetism articles in the past few days?

Europeans about to fire up a supercollider that will open up extra dimensions, spin up black holes, re-create the Big Bang. Sure sounds like a good idea

World's most powerful superconducting magnet is up and running. Iron core asteroid impact now scheduled for England

17-year-old in Michigan creates fusion in his garage, and not the kind of fusion you've got going with those sweatsocks on your bedroom floor

Furthermore, thanks to this website, this news story and WikiPedia, I now know far more about nuclear fission than I ever cared.

wow hey lets put an experimental fusion reactor in the middle of country thats been teetering on civil war since the late 90's.

/nothin to put in the slashie

Working fusion reactors make me hate art and want to break stuff.

What could possibly go wrong? Maybe we'll get some new cliches out of it. They're wanted, I see.

wow hey lets put an experimental fusion reactor in the middle of country thats been teetering on civil war since the late 90's.

1)Huh?
2)They already have nukes, you know.

Mmmmm...nice and crispy Frenchmen. Nothing could possibly be wrong when they're all nice and crispy.

umm... i dont know much about the birth of a star... but dosent it have something to do with a black hole? they're creating a black hole?

I know they have nukes but they are all heavily protected(I assume) but this is a prime terrorist target in a country with huge numbers of extrem muslims.

Japan surrendered?


/got nothing

this story is extremely old news. Wake me up when something interesting happens, like, for example, they actually get the darned thing to work!

Hopefully this news causes the US to increase its funding into fusion research. Those who say it's 20 years away are right, with current funding levels. It could be 10 or even 5 with enough money thrown at it.

AtticusDigital

umm... i dont know much about the birth of a star... but dosent it have something to do with a black hole? they're creating a black hole?

A black hole comes from the death of a really big star.
Nothing to do with fusion or Iter.

FesterLDS beat me to the Spiderman 2 reference.

"The power of the sun in the palm of my hand!"

What could go wrong? One of the great things with fusion is that unlike fission, if something goes wrong, nothing happens. As in, the process stops if things go off killter. No worries about Three Mile Island type stuff. And with no parts like graphite control rods, cooling pools etc fewer worries about an "oops" moment. Indeed, realy no worries except for the reaction shutting down.

French Friesd?

.... does not approve ....



/who's got the jar?
//obscure??

y'all, the first freaking comment on this subject beat everybody to the spiderman 2 references.

what could go wrong? very little, actually

/facts are your friend, subby
//check them out sometime

A giant fireball destroyed France and I'm gay.

/wolves
//Gerald Ford

LtDarkstar
.... does not approve ....

Man, that brings back memories.

I have to remember to tell my brother to bring me back my "Cities of Gold" DVD box-set.

This headline confused me at first...then I stopped being stupid...

Consortium
"the legal right of one spouse to the company, affection, and assistance of and to sexual relations with the other"

If you think the vastly powerful oil industry is going to bend over and take it you're... naive. It will use every weapon at it's disposal to kill this; bribery, blackmail, murder and finally a military coup using a puppet politician who appeals to sentiment, God, patriotism and The American Way.

Nukular power in a country that isn't the US&A??!! We should sanction them until they curtail this weapons program!!

/sarcasm off

What could possibly go wrong? I'm hoping nothing. I hope they get it right and in a few years fusion reactors come on line for municipal electrical power generation. The west will have taken the first step to energy independence and then the Middle East can start quaking in their boots.

unholy_avenger:Nukular power in a country that isn't the US&A??!! We should sanction them until they curtail this weapons program!!

Fusion reactors can't be used to build bombs. They don't involve any quantity of fissile material. At best they could be used as a source of neutrons to activate/transmutate other elements, but there are easier ways to do that.

Lord Summerisle: If you think the vastly powerful oil industry is going to bend over and take it you're... naive. It will use every weapon at it's disposal to kill this; bribery, blackmail, murder and finally a military coup using a puppet politician who appeals to sentiment, God, patriotism and The American Way.


Sorta... more likely that they will position themselves to be the leading company with said technology and ensure their survival even once oil runs out.

uropaul

France is already operating some 59 nuclear reactors, mostly for power production. I guess that all those terrorists we have over there are not really interested in blowing up a nuclear power plant.

It wouldn't be the first time France surrendered to itself.

AtticusDigital:umm... i dont know much about the birth of a star... but dosent it have something to do with a black hole? they're creating a black hole?

Black holes are created when very massive stars die (our sun, for instance, is too small to form a black hole). Fusion is the source of energy of all stars. All that's required for fusion is to get matter very hot and at a sufficiently high density (though in a reactor, that density is still very low -- a very good vacuum in fact).

This is why fusion reactors are intrinsically safe - there's just not enough mass present in them for anything bad to happen even if containment is lost, unlike fission reactors which can contain tons of radioactive material. This makes building a practical fusion reactor difficult though, as one would like to operate it at steady-state, and that means feeding in fuel and removing exhaust without disturbing the reaction. That might sound easy, but given the temperatures involved, it's not.

MORB: France is already operating some 59 nuclear reactors, mostly for power production. I guess that all those terrorists we have over there are not really interested in blowing up a nuclear power plant.

Or just haven't got the resources together yet. That's the kind of thing that takes time and money to do right. You can't just hop on a 747 and expect to crash it into the cooling towers and get a meltdown. To do maximum damage, you need to plan very carefully.

Lord Summerisle

If you think the vastly powerful oil industry is going to bend over and take it you're... naive. It will use every weapon at it's disposal to kill this; bribery, blackmail, murder and finally a military coup using a puppet politician who appeals to sentiment, God, patriotism and The American Way.

Ha ha!

No no no no. Oil companies won't kill it, they'll just try to postpone it until we MUST switch to another fuel source. It's human nature, not many be like radical change. It's inevitable but eventually we'll need something else.

I'm sure oil companies with all their capital/resources will try to be the first in line to implement new technology. If they fail, you'll end up spouting conspiracy theories about the "all powerful fusion companies."

shipofthesun

Actually, damn few modern reactors are even capable of meltdown or any other catastrophic failure. I'd be more worried about terrorists stealing waste or other byproducts - for example, Canadian CANDU reactors produce weapons-grade plutonium as a byproduct.

Either way, considering the problems with global warming produced by coal-burning, the problems with middle-eastern dependence produced by oil, I say bring the nukes.

Too bad Australia is so silly about it - Australia could be a world-leading producer of nuclear power, I mean, they've got endless tectonically-stable wasteland for disposal, good supplies of raw materials.... and not much in the way of options for hydroelectric power - but they've got lots of coal, so they use that instead.

Fusion reactors look cool too (if you can see inside them, that is). Like a big neon sign:

I'm pretty sure that nuclear is the only way that current lifestyles we enjoy could be sustained, energy wise. Fission just leads to some really long lived headaches, but I'll bet that we'll see new reactors being built in the US in the next 20 yrs, Hopefully it will only be a stepping stone.

roms?

As long as it's not the same size, I think we're safe. The human body generates more heat per cubic inch than the sun.

1.) As stated, oil companies aren't going to overthrow the government, they'll simply switch to providing energy based on fusion. Corporations are greedy, not stupid.

2.) The fact that we're so scared of using fission right now has nothing to do with reason, and everything to do with people being retarded. Three mile island had the proper safety mechanisms, unlike Chernobyl, which is why only minimal amounts of radiation ended up getting out. And safety technology has improved like crazy since then. Fission plants are perfeclty safe. They do produce a small amount of radioactive material (the pollution is a joke compared to coal, gas and oil), and you just need to find good places to bury it...like the Nevada desert (for the guy who said Australia, that might be a good place too.) I'm glad environmentalists are finally embracing technology as a helpful thing instead of shunning it like in the past, realizing that nuclear power is actually their friend, and the most environmentally-safe energy source around today.

3.) To the people talking about France being on the brink of civil war...shut up. And go back to work. Seriously.

French fries?

I'd be impressed if they actually got it to work. Fusion power is the best (known) option for renewable clean energy, but containment has always been difficult, always using more energy than the reactor puts out. If they found a way to convert the wasted energy into a usable form, or make the magnetic containment system more efficient, then it will be a marvelous breakthrough. If they haven't done either/both of those, then it's just a ridiculous waste of time and money.

\will be watching with mild curiosity.
\\is a futurist and technology buff.

It's a win-win situation really.
If it works, new source of energy, no pollution.
If it blows up, bye bye Marseille.

/almost rooting for it to explode.
//how you say slashie?

Honestly, the worst thing that could happen is this thing gets delayed again for any reason.

The Fusion Process is Inherently Safe (pops)

"Equipment failure quickly leads to plasma extinguishment."

This other link from there gives a real good Why, if you didn't know.

http://www.iter.org/a/index_nav_2.htm

It's in general just a really cool website, with lots of cool pictures.

Is it me or does that look familiar?

Timmaay: Honestly, the worst thing that could happen is this thing gets delayed again for any reason.

The Fusion Process is Inherently Safe (pops)

"Equipment failure quickly leads to plasma extinguishment."

This other link from there gives a real good Why, if you didn't know.

http://www.iter.org/a/index_nav_2.htm

It's in general just a really cool website, with lots of cool pictures.
Killjoy.

bruno.ytmnd.com