OP
Deleted member 473
float is scary for land lubbers who can't swim. If you are scared you have a doppelganger, double is frightening.
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
Object orientation leaves me weeping, I shall put in my compensation claim.
OP
Deleted member 473
Binary is the norm.
OP
Deleted member 473
56 or older? Come get your vaccine!
OP
Deleted member 473
Who cares about whether some family in London and their son in California have fallen out?
More on pages 3 to 25.
More on pages 3 to 25.
EEPhil
Number 28
Yes, I was wondering if you are allowed to objectify anything. The concept of encapsulation sounds dangerous as well.
OP
Deleted member 473
The solution is JET. The location is Culham.
(Yet again.)
www.thetimes.co.uk
(Yet again.)
Things are hotting up in quest for energy’s holy grail: nuclear fusion
Several times a day, for a few seconds, a village in rural Oxfordshire becomes the hottest place in the solar system.Culham, population 450, is the site of the
www.thetimes.co.uk
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
JET? Antiquainted. I can't get access to the article you've linked (without signing up), but I know they're building a much bigger tokamak in France:
ITER - the way to new energy
ITER is the world’s largest fusion experiment. Thirty-five nations are collaborating to build and operate the ITER Tokamak, the most complex machine ever designed, to prove that fusion is a viable source of large-scale, safe, and environmentally friendly energy for the planet.
www.iter.org
OP
Deleted member 473
That's right, but they are planning another go at Culham.JET? Antiquainted. I can't get access to the article you've linked (without signing up), but I know they're building a much bigger tokamak in France:
ITER - the way to new energy
ITER is the world’s largest fusion experiment. Thirty-five nations are collaborating to build and operate the ITER Tokamak, the most complex machine ever designed, to prove that fusion is a viable source of large-scale, safe, and environmentally friendly energy for the planet.www.iter.org
OP
Deleted member 473
Several times a day, for a few seconds, a village in rural Oxfordshire becomes the hottest place in the solar system.
Culham, population 450, is the site of the world’s most powerful nuclear fusion experiment. And this summer it is set to make history as scientists prepare for the biggest advance in decades on the road to limitless energy.
Since 1983 physicists at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, in a bend of the Thames just south of Abingdon, have been quietly trying to make the dream of nuclear fusion a reality. Their project, the Joint European Torus (JET), smashes atoms together at temperatures of up to 150 million degrees celsius, ten times the heat at the centre of the sun, in an effort to harness the extraordinary energy produced by the resulting reaction.
In June, they will start work on a potent fuel mix they have not attempted for decades — deuterium, an isotope also known as heavy hydrogen, and tritium, a rarer and radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Professor Ian Chapman, chief executive of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, said: “Hopefully we’ll set a record for fusion energy produced. I have high confidence we will get good results.”
Nuclear fusion is the holy grail of energy production, mimicking the reaction at the centre of the sun. Two atoms of hydrogen, the most abundant chemical in the universe, are fused together to form helium, releasing a surge of energy.
The process was first demonstrated nearly 70 years ago. But replicating the physics of the centre of the sun is a significant challenge. In the sun hydrogen fuses under immense gravity. On earth it has to be achieved with extreme heat.
In Culham, that process is attempted about 20 times a day. Hydrogen is heated by energising, electrifying and firing atoms at the mix, until atoms fuse.
The last time the team attempted this with deuterium and tritium was in 1997. The experiment was a landmark, producing 16 megawatts of power, enough to power a small town. They had proved nuclear fusion could be a source of energy. But the power spike lasted just 0.15 seconds. “We went up to a lot of power and then lost control of it,” Chapman said. “It came down very quickly. Now we’ve got a lot more control over the field, we can make it last a lot longer.”
The team hopes this time to make that output last for at least five seconds.
Since they last combined deuterium and tritium they have spent years refining the way fuel is pumped into the reaction chamber. They have carried out most of the experiments with deuterium alone because tritium’s radioactivity makes it hard to handle. It is also expensive, at up to £70,000 a gram. This summer the team plans to use 60g of tritium too, which it will recycle.
It is a proof of principle for a much larger experiment. When JET produced 16MW of power, 24MW was required as an input. The process is so energy intensive that the Culham scientists have to warn National Grid in advance.
“The key thing is scale,” Chapman said. In a small nuclear reaction, a lot of energy escapes from the centre of the gas ball to the edge, in the form of heat, where it has to be safely removed. “There is a lot of waste.” A bigger reaction retains more energy within the gas ball.
After the success at Culham, 35 countries united to fund a bigger machine, called Iter (Latin for “the way”). Sited in Provence, France, Iter involves America, Japan, Russia, China, India and most of Europe. It is the world’s biggest science experiment, at a £20 billion cost.
Because of its size, Iter will achieve what JET cannot: efficiency. “We will put 50MW in and we will get 500MW out,” said Chapman. “That is enough to power a city the size of Leeds or Liverpool.”
Iter is due to be completed in five years’ time, and JET’s purpose this summer is to show that it will work.
Chapman is certain that nuclear fusion will eventually come to fruition. “The aim is to have power stations putting energy onto the grid by the early 2040s.”
Ministers have promised £184 million of funding over five years for facilities at Culham and put £222 million into prototypes for a more efficient fusion plant. “It takes time,” said Chapman. “The wind turbine first produced electricity in the 1880s. It didn’t happen overnight.”
Culham, population 450, is the site of the world’s most powerful nuclear fusion experiment. And this summer it is set to make history as scientists prepare for the biggest advance in decades on the road to limitless energy.
Since 1983 physicists at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, in a bend of the Thames just south of Abingdon, have been quietly trying to make the dream of nuclear fusion a reality. Their project, the Joint European Torus (JET), smashes atoms together at temperatures of up to 150 million degrees celsius, ten times the heat at the centre of the sun, in an effort to harness the extraordinary energy produced by the resulting reaction.
In June, they will start work on a potent fuel mix they have not attempted for decades — deuterium, an isotope also known as heavy hydrogen, and tritium, a rarer and radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Professor Ian Chapman, chief executive of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, said: “Hopefully we’ll set a record for fusion energy produced. I have high confidence we will get good results.”
Nuclear fusion is the holy grail of energy production, mimicking the reaction at the centre of the sun. Two atoms of hydrogen, the most abundant chemical in the universe, are fused together to form helium, releasing a surge of energy.
The process was first demonstrated nearly 70 years ago. But replicating the physics of the centre of the sun is a significant challenge. In the sun hydrogen fuses under immense gravity. On earth it has to be achieved with extreme heat.
In Culham, that process is attempted about 20 times a day. Hydrogen is heated by energising, electrifying and firing atoms at the mix, until atoms fuse.
The last time the team attempted this with deuterium and tritium was in 1997. The experiment was a landmark, producing 16 megawatts of power, enough to power a small town. They had proved nuclear fusion could be a source of energy. But the power spike lasted just 0.15 seconds. “We went up to a lot of power and then lost control of it,” Chapman said. “It came down very quickly. Now we’ve got a lot more control over the field, we can make it last a lot longer.”
The team hopes this time to make that output last for at least five seconds.
Since they last combined deuterium and tritium they have spent years refining the way fuel is pumped into the reaction chamber. They have carried out most of the experiments with deuterium alone because tritium’s radioactivity makes it hard to handle. It is also expensive, at up to £70,000 a gram. This summer the team plans to use 60g of tritium too, which it will recycle.
It is a proof of principle for a much larger experiment. When JET produced 16MW of power, 24MW was required as an input. The process is so energy intensive that the Culham scientists have to warn National Grid in advance.
“The key thing is scale,” Chapman said. In a small nuclear reaction, a lot of energy escapes from the centre of the gas ball to the edge, in the form of heat, where it has to be safely removed. “There is a lot of waste.” A bigger reaction retains more energy within the gas ball.
After the success at Culham, 35 countries united to fund a bigger machine, called Iter (Latin for “the way”). Sited in Provence, France, Iter involves America, Japan, Russia, China, India and most of Europe. It is the world’s biggest science experiment, at a £20 billion cost.
Because of its size, Iter will achieve what JET cannot: efficiency. “We will put 50MW in and we will get 500MW out,” said Chapman. “That is enough to power a city the size of Leeds or Liverpool.”
Iter is due to be completed in five years’ time, and JET’s purpose this summer is to show that it will work.
Chapman is certain that nuclear fusion will eventually come to fruition. “The aim is to have power stations putting energy onto the grid by the early 2040s.”
Ministers have promised £184 million of funding over five years for facilities at Culham and put £222 million into prototypes for a more efficient fusion plant. “It takes time,” said Chapman. “The wind turbine first produced electricity in the 1880s. It didn’t happen overnight.”
Last edited by a moderator:
OP
Deleted member 473
Coronavirus vaccine linked to autism in children
(Well, the MMR campaign worked for the Daily Mail, so why not?)
(Well, the MMR campaign worked for the Daily Mail, so why not?)
OP
Deleted member 473
DAB blackspot near M4 turns out to be a Black Hole. Volunteers searching for victims seen frozen in time.
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
Oh, so it's my fault now is it? I know I've put on a few pounds, but...
OP
Deleted member 473
Maxima Caesariensis, Valentia and Flavia Caesariensis ask for devolution from Britannia Prima.
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
B-Lister has fit of pique having discovered marriage does not confer A-List status
EEPhil
Number 28
If you’re talking about who I think, I think you’ve given her a promotion. D-lister at best. Before the engagement I’d never heard of her.
Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
Thanks for that, I'm not well up on such trivia.
Who but a Californian would consider suicide as a possible solution, or require a therapist on tap? Nobody told her she would be expected to curtsey to the Queen - really? I expect she simply didn't want to hear that sort of thing.
Who but a Californian would consider suicide as a possible solution, or require a therapist on tap? Nobody told her she would be expected to curtsey to the Queen - really? I expect she simply didn't want to hear that sort of thing.