So, When Do I Get My Mr. Fusion?
In the early 90's the scientific community got burned over claims of "cold fusion." Now that it appears that another form of "fusion in a jar" may be possible, the
Purdue University team responsible is being very careful.
Unfortunately it's premature to plan installing a
Mr. Fusion on your flying DeLorean. Presently these scientists are not even talking about this technology being used as an energy source.
Before such a system could be used as a new energy source, however, researchers must reach beyond the "break-even" point, in which more energy is released from the reaction than the amount of energy it takes to drive the reaction.
"We are not yet at break-even," Taleyarkhan said. "That would be the ultimate. I don't know if it will ever happen, but we are hopeful that it will and don't see any clear reason why not. In the future we will attempt to scale up this system and see how far we can go."
Instead of energy production, these scientists forsee using neutron emissions in scanning technology – for security, medicine, or for nanotechnology.
Posted by Stephen Gordon at March 3, 2004 09:24 AM
| TrackBack
