NKorea claims to achieve elusive nuclear fusion
By KWANG-TAE KIM (AP) – 7 hours ago
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea claimed Wednesday that its scientists succeeded in creating a nuclear fusion reaction, but experts doubted the isolated communist country actually had made the breakthrough in the elusive clean-energy technology.
Fusion nuclear reactions produce little radioactive waste — unlike fission, which powers conventional nuclear power reactors — and some hope it could one day provide a virtually limitless supply of clean energy. U.S. and other scientists have been experimenting with fusion for decades, but it has yet to be developed into a viable energy alternative.
North Korea's main newspaper, however, reported that its own scientists achieved the feat on the occasion of the "Day of the Sun" — a North Korean holiday marking the birthday of the country's late dynastic founder, Kim Il Sung, in April.
10th May 2010: Russia and Italy have entered into an agreement to build a new fusion reactor outside Moscow that could become the first such reactor to achieve ignition, the point where a fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining instead of requiring a constant input of energy. The design for the reactor, called Ignitor, originated with MIT physics professor Bruno Coppi, who will be the project's principal investigator.
9th May 2010: World's largest laser takes first steps towards nuclear fusion reaction
The quest to create a controlled fusion reaction is underway at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), with scientists reporting early progress ahead of ignition experiments which are due to start later this year. The ultimate aim of the world's largest laser - which is the size of three football fields - is to develop carbon-free, limitless fusion energy.
Inside the NIF, a beam of concentrated light charges up by bouncing back and forth over the distance of a mile and is then split into 192 beams which are concentrated on a tiny spot of deuterium and tritium (reactive isotopes of hydrogen that can be extracted from seawater) called a hohlraum.
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I wish we in North America and Europe would team up on a Manhattan Project for nuclear fusion. That would have been a good use of a couple of hundred billion dollars.....
North Korea can't even keep their bloody lights on in Pyongyang. They've been building the Ryugyong Hotel on-and-off for 23 years because they keep running out of money.
Coito ergo sum wrote:I wish we in North America and Europe would team up on a Manhattan Project for nuclear fusion. That would have been a good use of a couple of hundred billion dollars.....
I saw some twat on Faux News saying "They want to start a STAR on the surface of the Earth? I don't know about you, but I don't think that's a good idea." Then, of course, he got back into his Hummer, drove 35 miles to his 16 room house on 5 acres of land clear-cut from the forest and watched himself on his 6,000" (diagonal) LCD TV.
Ein Ubootsoldat wrote:“Ich melde mich ab. Grüssen Sie bitte meine Kameraden.”
Coito ergo sum wrote:I wish we in North America and Europe would team up on a Manhattan Project for nuclear fusion. That would have been a good use of a couple of hundred billion dollars.....
North Korea can't even keep their bloody lights on in Pyongyang. They've been building the Ryugyong Hotel on-and-off for 23 years because they keep running out of money.
