Word: fusion
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...giant laser is dedicated in a ceremony at Livermore this week, scientists will employ its intense beam of light in an attempt to weld the nuclei of hydrogen atoms, releasing bursts of energy at temperatures exceeding those at the center of the sun. Should they succeed in harnessing nuclear fusion, they could point the way toward a limitless supply of cheap, clean power. "Once we crack the problem of fusion," says John Emmett, associate director for lasers at Livermore, "we have an assured source of energy for as long as you want to think about it. It will cease...
...awesome might of fusion energy can be explained by Albert Einstein's famed equation, E = mc 2. When two nuclei from hydrogen atoms are shoved together to become a single, heavier helium nucleus, a tiny bit of their individual masses is converted into a tremendous amount of energy. In weapons, that energy is uncontrolled and destructive. To channel it into a usable form, scientists must be able to control the fusion reac- tion and confine it to a chamber, which requires surmounting some formidable physical constraints. The hydrogen nuclei must be crushed together with enough force to overcome their mutually...
...raised to 100 million degrees, causing it to vaporize explosively. Just as a rocket is pushed forward by its tail exhaust, the vaporizing surface would exert a force inward, compressing the pellet to a density 20 times that of lead and forcing the nuclei to fuse. In the fusion power plant of the future, Livermore scientists say, larger pellets will be blasted, one after another, producing successive bursts of energy...
Critics of the laser fusion program contend that it is five to ten years behind magnetic containment fusion, a technique that uses powerful magnetic fields to contain the reaction. But magnetic fusion, too, still has a long way to go. It has not yet even reached the stage at which the energy produced by the machines equals the energy required to run them. Says Livermore's Emmett: "Fusion is one of the most difficult technological undertakings that man has ever engaged in, and probably one of the most important...
...most totalitarian (and internationally powerful) scientific organization which imposes a most questionable form of slavery, that of the human mind." Moreover, Santilli argues that the systematic obstruction of certain kinds of research in theoretical and experimental physics may be hindering important technological advances, such as controlled nuclear fusion, which could influence the economic and even the military security of the United States...