Comments on: At the National Ignition Facilty, Let the Nuclear Fusion Begin! Hopefully.

By: Skeptikor

Skeptikor — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:49:55 +0000

If anyone remembers the old “Omni” magazine, it had an article once that covered the possibility of small fusion reactors in every home. Just think of where that could lead, especially if Apple were to make them…”Dad, can I have a new reator for my room? Like, orange is such a gross color and this old model just sucks the deuterium.”

By: Amos Zeeberg (Discover Web Editor)

Amos Zeeberg (Discover Web Editor) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:12:39 +0000

Good call, FB36. DISCOVER covered high school student Thiago Olson and his benchtop fusion device here: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/mar/radioactive-boy-scout

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:17:05 +0000

Fusion has been the power source of the future for the last 50 years… and still hasn’t arrived. I guess we shouldn’t be too discouraged since Mother Nature needs a whole giant planet worth of hydrogen to ignite deuterium fusion within it and a whole star’s worth to ignite proton fusion.

By: FB36

FB36 — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:20:11 +0000

I remember in the news a few years ago a high school student had built a real fusion experiment device using parts bought online etc :-)
Nothing to be scared, it would not blow your neighborhood! (maybe just your house :-)

Creating fusion reaction is not the hard part though, the problem is producing energy
from it continuously and efficiently.

By: shaking head

shaking head — Sat, 30 May 2009 07:28:36 +0000

@ NIck

I totally agree with the last part

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:20:34 +0000

Yeah, I’m totally gonna have my kid build a fusion reactor for the science fair.

Hey, my synthesizer has 192 oscillators.

Also, I’d like to note that the Bush family has had ties to middle eastern oil since G. H. W. Bush’s father was a young man in the early part of the 20th century, so anyone involved with them may have a slight bias against anything that stands to replace oil as our international currency and energy source.

By: Energy Science Fair Projects

Energy Science Fair Projects — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:35:38 +0000

Fusion really is the preferable energy source of the future. However, it is still not known whether we can generate enough energy with manmade fusion to make the costly process worthwhile. Students interested in energy science fair projects can learn a great deal from the fusion experiments taking place today.