Cold Fusion is back?

[TheeXile]

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4955212n

What do you think could happen to the world if they figure this shit out and it becomes our primary source of energy? What would happen if this meant world-wide interdependence upon oil goes away, for example?



And here I was thinking a petty thing like OnLive could become something scary if it worked...

[Scet]

If you read the article associated with the video, you'll see they still have no idea how it works:

But there's another problem that critics point out: the experiments produce excess heat at best 70 percent of the time; it can take days or weeks for the excess heat to show up. And it's never the same amount of energy twice.

This is the reason it pops up every couple years and then disappears. Some scientists don't get any results and the ones that do don't know how they got them. This leads to said scientists thinking the experiment is junk. It's probably going to be a long time before someone figures it out, don't expect a cold-fusion generator anytime soon.

[TheeXile]

Or it could be some accidental freak discovery that solves the whole thing tomorrow, for all we know.

My point being: What do you think would happen if it was successfully cracked?

[The Lag]

at present, you'll have better luck using your ex-girlfriend as a fuel-rod

[Maes]

TheeXile said:

My point being: What do you think would happen if it was successfully cracked?

I find myself agreeing with a thesis appearing in the novel Odyssey 3001: Final Odyssey. In that age, humankind had unlimited power already from 2100 or something, by harnessing "zero point energy" though, not cold fusion.

And the direct consequence of that was a major global thermal crisis, since everyone now had a few 100s kW to play with at his disposal.

You surely can't blame Arthur Clarke for lack of confidence in humankind's ability to pervert and badly fuck up everything it touches ;-)

[fraggle]

I'm far more excited by the work going on with NIF and ITER.

[Snarboo]

the wiki article about NIF said:
NIF is the largest and most energetic ICF device built to date, and the first that is expected to reach the long-sought goal of "ignition" (more energy coming out than is put in).

Wait, isn't that physically impossible, as in it breaks one of the laws of thermodynamics? The reason the sun produces so much energy is because it is massive enough to generate energy from its gravitational field. Its mass far surpasses that of all the planets in the solar system.

Am I missing something here?

Edit:
I just realized that it isn't impossible. I mean, that's basically how thermonuclear bombs work. A better question would be is fusion sustainable? I can see how it would be possible to create a fusion reaction, but it seems like it would fizzle out rather quickly.

[Maes]

Yup. The trick is convert matter into energy in a subtler way than how it is done in a bomb, and pretty much in the opposite way of fission (you join things instead of breaking them apart). Given that you don't have to use "premium" refined and hazardous nuclear fuels to do that (you can use plain hydrogen instead), no wonder it's so sought after...and very tricky to get it right. Well...when it's done, we'll all surely come to know about it.

[fraggle]

Snarboo said:

Wait, isn't that physically impossible, as in it breaks one of the laws of thermodynamics? The reason the sun produces so much energy is because it is massive enough to generate energy from its gravitational field. Its mass far surpasses that of all the planets in the solar system.

Am I missing something here?

Fusion occurs in the Sun because its mass is so huge that the gravitational force is strong enough to cause the hydrogen in it to undergo fusion. NIF is sort of trying to do the same thing, but using lots of incredibly powerful lasers focused on a tiny ball of hydrogen to create the same kind of forces.

Edit:
I just realized that it isn't impossible. I mean, that's basically how thermonuclear bombs work. A better question would be is fusion sustainable? I can see how it would be possible to create a fusion reaction, but it seems like it would fizzle out rather quickly.

The current designs don't seem to be sustainable, in that they can't run continually and generate power. NIF just fires at a ball to generate a single release of energy, while ITER is only intended to run for 1,000 seconds at a time. The important thing is that the technology is still in its early stages; we have yet to even create a device that generates more energy than it uses. Once working designs exist, it should then be a matter of improving the technology and scaling it up until it's practical.

Looking at the anticipated energy output for the ITER and NIF designs, it looks like even if they are successful, it will still be quite a while before we have fusion power stations that can generate the same kind of energy as existing nuclear power stations. However, the long term advantages of fusion are well worth it.

[Zaldron]

Am I missing something here?

The intrinsic relationship between matter and energy. Remember the ridiculous difference in magnitude between the electromagnetic and the strong force. Even if most of it cancels out when you look at it for distances bigger than those involving quarks (nuclear force, also called residual strong force), it's still an insane amount of energy.

These things, we simply take for granted because of our own strong composition in matter. There's a lot to tap. So much in fact, that considering 'cold' fusion a sorts of endgame to energy hunting is very much a believable prospect. Once you get it kinda like stars get it, you start running out of better examples in the Universe.