Tests at the National Ignition Facility have been delayed another six months, due largely to problems with the filters designed to capture tritium. It seems they have been capturing more than tritium. NIF scientist Doug Eddy is still confident they will achieve ignition next year.
Temperature, density, confinement time: pick any two.
Giorgio wrote:You are right. Sometimes I tend to forget how much politics plays a role in research.
But the actual purpose of NIF is testing bomb code. So NIF will be fine.
As for the earnest portrayal of NIF as some sort of prototype power reactor... that's some relatively inexpensive greenwashing and might even be left alone as well.
And some actual non-bomb fusion research should come out of it.
As I've said elsewhere: if inertial confinement can be made to work as a practical, economical power source the result will look almost exactly unlike the NIF.
And don't forget supercomputing and Moore's law are alive and well. Bomb analysis is a big part of funding for number crunchers. And the fickle finger of budgeteering sees progress in supercomputers...
hanelyp wrote:NIIF should produce some interesting physics if it ever runs. Anything beyond that is doubtful.
The efficiency of lasers is very low (~5%) requiring very high target’s amplifying factor. The target turns out complicated and therefore expensive.
And consequently if inertial confinement will ever capable to produce net power, that will be expensive.
