Between this and the Large Hardon Collider..

Purple Gorilla

We're doomed

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29964926/

Super-laser fully operational at last
U.S. certifies $3.5 billion facility capable of simulating H-bomb’s energy

WASHINGTON - After more than a decade of work and $3.5 billion, engineers have completed the world's most powerful laser, capable of simulating the energy force of a hydrogen bomb and the sun itself.

The federal Energy Department will announce Tuesday that it has officially certified the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, clearing the way for a series of experiments over the next year that eventually is hoped will mimic the heat and pressure found at the center of the sun.

The facility, the size of a football field, comprises 192 separate laser beams, each traveling 1,000 feet in one-thousandth of a second to converge simultaneously on a target the size of a pencil eraser.


While the laser at the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, is expected to be used for a wide range of high-energy and high-density physics experiments, its primary purpose is to help government physicists ensure the reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons as they become older.

The laser "will be a cornerstone" of the weapons stewardship program, "ensuring the continuing reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile without underground nuclear testing," Thomas D'Agostino, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said in an interview Monday.

The NNSA, a semi-independent arm of the Energy Department, oversees nuclear weapons programs.

The NIF laser was proposed in the early 1990s, when the project's cost was put at $700 million. Construction began in 1997. Its early years were marked by setbacks including trouble, eventually overcome, in keeping its critical optics perfectly clean and free of dust.

NIF is expected to ramp up power gradually in a series of experiments over the next year, culminating at a power level in 2010 to achieve what scientists call "fusion ignition": enough heat and pressure to fuse hydrogen atoms in a tiny cylindrical target so that more energy is released than is generated by the laser beams themselves.

That is what happens when a hydrogen bomb explodes and inside the sun, at its center. It's also what scientists would one day like to achieve on a continuing basis to produce a clean, safe form of energy by fusing atoms instead of splits them apart.

‘The proof is in the shooting’
Edward Moses, director of the NIF project who has led its development since 1999, said he is ever more confident that NIF will achieve "fusion ignition."

"It's now operational," Moses said in a telephone interview. "The lasers are there. The targets are there, and we've proven the optics. But now the proof is in the shooting. We've got to put all this together and shoot the targets. It's the first time anyone has ever done experiments at this scale."


NIF's 192 laser beams produce 60 to 70 times more energy than a 60-beam system at the University of Rochester, which is the world's second most powerful laser, Moses said.

In addition to helping diagnose the functioning of nuclear warheads, the NIF laser is expected to be used in astrophysics, allowing scientists to mimic conditions inside planets and new solar systems.

Moses said he sees NIF as key in the move toward developing a fusion energy source. "What we want to show is scientific proof of the principle of fusion energy," said Moses, predicting that some experiments for a short time may produce 50 to 100 times more energy than the lasers generate.

Gingervitis

hardon
**sniggers*

think you mean hadron

bleg

The facility, the size of a football field, comprises 192 separate laser beams, each traveling 1,000 feet in one-thousandth of a second to converge simultaneously on a target the size of a pencil eraser.

justcallmetex

Amazing innit?!

The_Minister

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uq9pp586AE

Wagon

So you built a Death Star, big whoop wanna fight about it?

But that is still ****ing cool. This and the large hadron collider are just cool. Every man on the plantet just wants to mess with them and crash tables into each other and set poo on fire with lasers.

Mr.Lizard

Forgive me for being proud of this technological terror but we are now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it.

SEPT 23 1989

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

Forgive me for being proud of this technological terror but we are now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it.

spend a drunken evening firing it into space,see if we can stir up a row to take our minds off the global recession:)

Sofiztikated

So what would happen if you set the large hadron collidor colliding fairly large hadrons, i mean really really large ones and then shot it with the laser thingy.
Also, will the US use the laser thing like bouncers use laser pointers? Kind of like an international "Oi, son, we're watching you. There, Britain, get him. No, him, not him, yer man there."
*Disclaimer. I don't really understand what either of them do, kinda zoned out when reading about them.

994

Sofiztikated wrote: »

So what would happen if you set the large hadron collidor colliding fairly large hadrons, i mean really really large ones and then shot it with the laser thingy.
Also, will the US use the laser thing like bouncers use laser pointers? Kind of like an international "Oi, son, we're watching you. There, Britain, get him. No, him, not him, yer man there."
*Disclaimer. I don't really understand what either of them do, kinda zoned out when reading about them.

It's a hadron collider that is large, not a collider of large hardons.

ScumLord

Feckin idiots, it's supposed to be in space! Now when the aliens attack we'll only get one shot at them every 24 hours. :mad:

Tech3

They have all these new ways of energy its mad, there was an article a while back showing a piece of the moon can generate a small town for a year or something

Miguel_Sanchez

Right now there's a scientist standing right beside this laser, looking at it and wondering.... "Sure what harm could it do to light my cigarette off it?"

Mr.Lizard

All this progress and we're still no closer to a fully operational smelloscope.

Mr. Incognito

Meh,

The Yanks built it. They'll discover someone did the calculation in crayon and the whole thing will never work.

Now if the Japs were at it..................

Mr.Lizard

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

Now if the Japs were at it..................

Japs are it it. There was nearly 130million of them at the last count.

junior_apollo

Am i the only one humming "Imperial March" theme tune?...

Sofiztikated

junior_apollo wrote: »

Am i the only one humming "Imperial March" theme tune?...

Possibly.

I'm humming Eye of the Tiger. Don't really know why.

Roadend

Pewww pewww

Terry

I blame James Bond films for this.

cotwold

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

Forgive me for being proud of this technological terror but we are now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it.

I reckon Alderan is as good a place as any to test it.

Stercus Accidit

Hello there, nuclear fusion in 2010.

****ing capable of fusing hydrogen atoms?

We are looking at nuclear fusion lads! **** oil, fision, bio fuel.

Get out in that ferrari and rip the town up! Take a few flights for no reason!


We have energy, and no worries! Yay!

In 2010

Zadkiel

Gingervitis wrote: »

hardon
**sniggers*

The last time two large hardons collided Ron Jeremy was out of work for 6 weeks

Caco

The article says it's 1 football field in size, the video on the same page says 3... so how big is this <airquotes>laser?</airquotes>

cotwold

Well to answer that Caco we'd have to decide first if they're talking about an american football field or a soccer pitch.:pac:

Sofiztikated

Do ya think you could use this to carve your name on the moon?

kevmy

Caco wrote: »

The article says it's 1 football field in size, the video on the same page says 3... so how big is this <airquotes>laser?</airquotes>

It's actually 192 separate lasers. The individual lasers are then put into another huge quasi laser (about the size of an American football field - the whole building is the size of 3) this will help amplify the power by using mirrors rather than by the scientists adding extra power. Thats the really clever bit. Fusion is easy enough to do it's just noe easy to get more power out than we put in - which obviously we need to do to generate power.

Riddle101

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

Forgive me for being proud of this technological terror but we are now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it.

We? you seem to assume, that we had anything to do with it. It will most certainly be the Americans who will be the ultimate power in the universe, not We.

Anyway I don't like this one but. The idea of America having a potential threat like that makes me wonder if they are prepared to use it for military purpose. It'll be the first Atomic bomb all over again.

Zillah

tech2 wrote: »

They have all these new ways of energy its mad, there was an article a while back showing a piece of the moon can generate a small town for a year or something

Yes and we can use our magic energy-teleportation device to safely send the energy back to earth. Did you not play sim city!? Those microwaves are dangerous.

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

Hello there, nuclear fusion in 2010.

****ing capable of fusing hydrogen atoms?

We are looking at nuclear fusion lads! **** oil, fision, bio fuel.

Get out in that ferrari and rip the town up! Take a few flights for no reason!


We have energy, and no worries! Yay!

In 2010

We already have fusion laddie, it just never generates more power than we put in. This immense death beam is no different.

cotwold

Riddle101 wrote: »

Anyway I don't like this one but. The idea of America having a potential threat like that makes me wonder if they are prepared to use it for military purpose. It'll be the first Atomic bomb all over again.

Don't worry Riddle, Europe's working on its own superweapon ,http://www.iter.org/,
soon we'll have enough power to destroy each other. :pac:

kevmy

Riddle101 wrote: »

We? you seem to assume, that we had anything to do with it. It will most certainly be the Americans who will be the ultimate power in the universe, not We.

Anyway I don't like this one but. The idea of America having a potential threat like that makes me wonder if they are prepared to use it for military purpose. It'll be the first Atomic bomb all over again.

Please excuse me while I laugh.

Bwahahahahaha

Okay thats better.
a) They spent millions of dollars and years trying to get this working. It cannot be used as a weapon. It took them ages to focus all the beams to a ridiculously small point. They could not focus the beams together anywhere else.
b) Reliable working fusion power has been a dream for many decades and would solve loads of problems including climate change and the fuel shortage.
c) If they were working on another A bomb do you think they'd put it out to the worlds media to make sure the Chinese know what there up to
d) Conspiracy theory forum --->

Agent Smith

I think the population of earth follows me, when i say "Fuck You Mars.



Fuck you

Rented Mule

All we need now is a really freakin' big shark and our evil plan will be complete.

Muuuhuuuhua (pinky to side of mouth)

seanybiker

Gingervitis wrote: »

hardon
**sniggers*

think you mean hadron

cant stop laughing at that little mistake.

cotwold

kevmy wrote: »

Please excuse me while I laugh.

Bwahahahahaha

Okay thats better.
a) They spent millions of dollars and years trying to get this working. It cannot be used as a weapon. It took them ages to focus all the beams to a ridiculously small point. They could not focus the beams together anywhere else.
b) Reliable working fusion power has been a dream for many decades and would solve loads of problems including climate change and the fuel shortage.
c) If they were working on another A bomb do you think they'd put it out to the worlds media to make sure the Chinese know what there up to
d) Conspiracy theory forum --->

Stop ruining all our fun, allow us have our deluded fantasies of super laser weapons and universal domination.

Does this come in blue?:cool: