| Eric L. |
| Very very cool pic. |
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| jaak |
| So cool it just became my PC's wallpaper...:D |
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| mgthe3 |
I was amazed at that thing.
There are some pretty cool articles on it on sandia pages. |
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| SugarRushMurano |
| Is it used in accelerating the particles (neutron for example) to promote the fusion process? |
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| Eric L. |
quote:
Originally posted by SugarRushMurano
Is it used in accelerating the particles (neutron for example) to promote the fusion process?
I think its more for experiments where particles are accelerated and collided into each other to observe the product of the reaction - whether it be high energy plasma, new particles, or the type of radiation emitted. Sure, it can be thought of as fusion, but practical fusion power is still a pipe dream today (unless ur talking about thermonuclear warheads!). These experiments where a few particles are collided though, yield insights into what might happen (on a much grander scale) in an actual fusion reaction. |
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| mgthe3 |
If you go to sandia's site you will see what the Z machine was built for---fusion. Fusion of deuterium primarily. They haven't got all the way to the point of an actual fuse yet, but they are very close. They were having problems with not only how to create and channel the energy to create fusion, but the exact symetrical way in which it must be done---that was the problem with the first nukes, the timing of the high energy explosive to go off symetrically to implode the pit, and, why it is improbable that any terrorist organization could actually home-make a nuke with any type of yield.
But they have beaten the symetrical problem with the Z at sandia, now it is on to up the energy af the accelerator.
They are doing this research to be able to predict how the stockpile of warheads are doing. "Pits" tend to erode after decades of just sitting there. They want to be able to fuse samples from pits that are already in existance without detonation of a full scale nuke. It is very hard to make pits without contamination of workers, ground water and the environment in general: hence the rocky flats shut down by the FBI. Any pits that are manufactured today are made in texas at the pemtex plant.
I just thought the pic was cool, and especially the awesome power controlled there. |
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