This is a game changer. http://www.aps.org/units/dpp/meetings/vpr/2011/upload/Schmitz_PR_Plasma-Predator.pdf http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/11/fusion_eddy_shred_discovery/
Saw some "highlights" this morning. He's destined for greatness, in the advertising business for Alzheimer's prescription drugs.
The fusion scientists will all start having grizzly "accidents" once the oild companies think they are in trouble.
I know research isn't your strong suit John... At the bottom of the pdf is this little gem. This work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under DE-FC02-04ER54698.
I attended a class this week and the instructor had worked in the oil industry for many years. He thinks they are onto something and that's why they aren't spending money on exploration of oil. His feeling is that they know what's coming and as soon as they can control it without destroying the world economy(ie, not put them out of business/power) they will drop it on the world and oil will start being much less necessary.
Ah, I read through it fairly quickly. Never saw a DoE site noted. I guess they funded it at the University. Seems like a damn good step in the right direction. :up:
Just because it is currently funded by the DOE doesn't mean it wouldn't be funded privately if the DOE didn't exist.
The idea of shutting down DoE to save money is silly. The work still has to get done. If you shut it down you still have to turn over the work to other units(ie, NRC, DoD). The Naval Reactors facilities would have to be taken completely in house though that's probably a good idea but turning over all of the weapons facilities cleanup to the NRC will not help. Just means the oversite personnel will get their checks from a different office. It would eliminate some crossover but so much would be spent in the transition my guess is it would take a long time to see that actual savings.
This program is +25 years into the making with more than 300 companies and universities in 37 states and the District of Columbia working directly with the project in the US alone. That has nothing to do with all the other nations collectively working on it. Just the construction of the tokamak is something like $18B. That $18B has nothing to do with the costs of research to make it work. The only way this can or could be paid for was by governments. Originally it was Gorbachev proposing this to Reagan. It now consists of the USA, Russia, EU, China, Japan, India, and Korea.
Be very careful. I installed one on My BMW RT and it resulted in a high fluctuation in the boffin pin. When that happened my brammus rod angle changed so drastically that it bent the front wheel. The fact that there was a curb in front of me was just a coincident. :up: