4 ms·
According to the NY Times: "The government official, who spoke anonymously to discuss results that are not yet public, said that the fusion experiment at NIF a
by elondaits 4y ago
According to the NY Times:
"The government official, who spoke anonymously to discuss results that are not yet public, said that the fusion experiment at NIF achieved what is known as ignition, where the fusion energy generated equals the laser energy that started the reaction. Ignition is also called energy gain of one."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/science/nuclear-fusion-energy-breakthrough.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/science/nuclear-fusion-en...
- O__________O 4y agoRelated Wikipedia on Fusion Ignition: - https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_ignition https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_ignition And additional news source: - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/12/breakthrough-in-nuclear-fusion-could-mean-near-limitless-energy https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/12/breakthr...
- radford-neal 4y ago
- fnordpiglet 4y agoIf they fired everyone who leaks we would have no public officials.
- nonethewiser 4y agoSo be it.
- Tepix 4y agoGovernment officials leaking things is one of their essential functions.
- wpietri 4y agoYou're joking, but I think this is true and often good. The government works for us. The press is there to inform us. An informed citizenry is a vital component for democracy. In my view, government generally shouldn't be keeping secrets.[1] The worse government is at keeping secrets, the happier I am. [1] Yes, reasonable exceptions apply, including ones relating to privacy, national security, and criminal investigations where an element of surprise is needed.
- etchalon 4y agoGovernment employees are not supposed to leak, but not because of commercial concerns. What a weird thing to be worried about. "It's not fair that Deep Throat talked to the Post first!"
- radford-neal 4y agoReally? You're not concerned that government employees may be picking up some income on the side by leaking stories to whichever news outlet pays them the most? That's just a weird thing to be worried about?
- _3u10 4y agoI think far more good comes from transparent government than harm. It’s my hope that the private sector compensated Snowden at least 50% of what they made in ad rev for his leaks. If government is as great as government makes itself out to be the people will be overjoyed to find out all the things it does.
- etchalon 4y agoWhy would I care if someone makes money smuggling accurate information through the press? The whole reason we need a press is so accurate information gets smuggled to us.
- radford-neal 4y agoI agree that we want accurate information about government abuses to be smuggled out. But that has nothing to do with this situation. This situation is about one newspaper getting a commercial advantage from publishing information a few hours earlier than their competitors. It reduces the quality of information the public sees, because many people will read only the report they initially see in the NYT, which includes only the commentary by people they decided to talk to. Whereas if all the papers got the information at the same time, people seeing the initial reports could flip between several sources of commentary, and possibly get a more balanced set of views.
- gus_massa 4y agoThat's not ignition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_ignition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_ignition . They are redefining ignition to make the current improvement more trendy, but they are very far away from true ignition.
- noobermin 4y agoICF isn't MCF, but yes, they already had ignition earlier. This is net energy gain if you draw the line at the energy in the lasers (even before the conversion to UV, much less x-rays).
- dralley 4y agoThe lasers at NIF provide both the startup energy and confinement. They can't just shut them off because then they would lose confinement.
- danbruc 4y agoDoes the laser radiation really contribute [significantly] to the confinement? I always assumed once the energy has been deposited into the outer layer of the target, it is the material of the target doing all the work, i.e. heating and confining the fuel.
- donquixote25 4y agoThe laser energy is converted to x-rays by the gold cylinder. But the cylinder only has a conversion ratio of 10~20 percent, so the amount of energy that gets deposited on the capsule is much lower.
- someweirdperson 4y agoCan they harvest the (electrical?) power to keep the laser running from whatver form of energy the fusion provides (radiation, heat?)?
- noobermin 4y ago
- paywallasinbeer 4y agohttps://archive.vn/vteLJ https://archive.vn/vteLJ