Beyond Energy: Using Fusion to Understand the Universe

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/06/16/Ed_Moses_Clean_Fusion_Power_This_Decade

Dr. Edward Moses, Director for the National Ignition Facility (NIF), explains that as the Kepler telescope continues to explore deep space, scientists will soon be unraveling cosmic mysteries right here on Earth. Using nuclear fusion, Moses hopes to be performing experimental astronomy (like creating tiny supernovae) in the very near future.

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Finally achieving fusion energy may be closer than everyone thinks. For decades the dream has been to employ the reaction that powers stars to generate high-volume electricity without the drawbacks of fission reactors -- no high-level waste, no weapons application, no risk of meltdown, no use of uranium, and (as with fission) no greenhouse gases.

Ed Moses is director of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore Labs. Focusing massive amounts of laser light for a billionth of a second, the NIF is expected to demonstrate ignition of a fusion reaction (more energy out than in) for the first time in the coming year, followed by the prospect of a prototype machine for generating continuous clean energy by the end of this decade. That could change everything. The NIF itself is a spectacular work of "technological sublime." - The Long Now Foundation

Dr. Edward Moses is the Director for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the Principal Associate Director for the NIF and Photon Science organization at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California.

Dr. Moses was responsible for completing construction and activation of the NIF, the world's largest and most energetic laser system and transforming it into an experimental platform for the broad national and international scientific user community. Experiments on NIF will access high energy density regimes with direct application to strategic security as well as applications for fusion energy research, high energy density science, and astrophysics.

Dr. Moses is also the National Director of the National Ignition Campaign to achieve fusion ignition in the laboratory, the culmination of a 50-year quest. The NIF and Photon Science principal directorate is also responsible for the development of advanced diagnostics and laser technologies for homeland security, economic competitiveness, and energy needs.

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[humanist7117]

He has been infected by the you know virus.

[marsCubed]

@mattghtpa Edge Science is described as "a 'popular' magazine devoted to heretical/fringe science ideas". It is wise to follow stories for a few years. If something is interesting it does get investigated, it is what most ambitious science graduates do, sometimes for the rest of their lives.

Your position seems blind faith in measurements that do not exist.

Being sceptical, to overcome confirmation bias is at the heart of the scientific method. Accusing science of scepticism seems very foolish.

[dan020350]

using any working perpetual motion like to understand the universe. Like recycling .

[kroovyandcal]

not sure. i have to look into this "cold fusion" bit, which has been discredited, but i've heard that this was done because of Big Oil, too

[BlueNile123]

@kroovyandcal I thought he was referring to the potential of fusion technology to allow e.g. creation of supernovae on earth, since stars operate on the principle of fusion

[mattghtpa]

@marsCubed Labs are obviously getting reactions, producing result, and data that suggest that nuclear fusion is occurring. And I think I have sufficiently made my argument sound.

[mattghtpa]

@marsCubed Fleischmann and Pons should have verified there experiment better instead of the media glitz announcement. It pissed off the hot fusion “need to speed billions” gang. Their jobs were threatened and the simplicity embarrassed them, so cold fusion was ridiculed into oblivion by the established corporate sponsored academia, but the problem is that it’s not going away.

[mattghtpa]

@marsCubed Her team has proven that fusion has taken place by tracking neutrons coming off the experiment. Then it goes on to the pejorative jest you quoted from Dr. Close.

Obviously there are 2 opposing camps on the issue, one uses science and experimentation to prove its case, the other just uses denial, so you tell me, which side is best demonstrating the scientific method?

[mattghtpa]

@marsCubed Dr. Close of course remained skeptical, but in the same article, Dr. Pamela Boss employed by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Centre in San Diego, California, produced cold fusion by placing electrodes in an electrolyte made up of heavy water, which contains deuterium. Dr. Boss and her colleagues reported that one of the electrodes in their experiment got hot, an effect they attribute to fusion.

[mattghtpa]

@marsCubed Well interestingly I did a search on Frank Close and in an article:

Is Cold Fusion Possible?

Experiments in Low-energy Nuclear Reactions Continue