[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Nuclear fusion...

[Marvin Menzin]

Engineers ,scientists , inventors are all  optimists. if they weren't they would not try to achieve new and better things ..and risk failures… 
so experienced business mgrs know not to trust their cost and time estimates..  

the bigger the challenge  the bigger the underestimates of cost and time to complete 
so its no surprise efficient fusion is still far off.  no reflection on the guys trying to do fusion … just a fact of life managers have to live with.  

 
 

Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 12, 2022, at 9:47 PM, George Gamota <ggamota at stma-llc.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> I have a story to tell. I was at the University of Michigan when I met Kip Siegal before he founded KMS Fusion. Then later in my career, while a professor at UM, I met the new CEO whose main goal was to sue the government for breach of contract for developing commercial fusion. Some of the key people involved were our neighbors, and we often discussed the chances of commercial fusion. They all said 50 years hence. That was in 1985.
> Kip was visionary and very bright, but his salesmanship was ahead of reality. He died in 1975 while testifying in Congress, promising fusion around the corner – just one more experiment and a million or so dollars needed…
> Sad story.
> George
>  
> From: LCTG <lctg-bounces+ggamota=stma-llc.com at lists.toku.us> On Behalf Of Michael Alexander
> Sent: Monday, December 12, 2022 6:02 PM
> To: Lex Computer Group <lctg at lists.toku.us>; Drew King (dking65 at kingconsulting.us) <dking65 at kingconsulting.us>
> Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Nuclear fusion...
>  
> I will be interested to learn what Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) and Department of Energy (DOE) people have to say about this "scientific breakthrough".  Undoubtedly it's a tremendous technical achievement, but right now I have reservations.
>  
> As I've understood the LLNL project, it's based on suddenly compressing a pellet of fusible -- hydrogen-containing, with tailored proportions of deuterium and tritium -- material.  To accomplish the compression, LLNL has constructed an array of synchronized high power lasers.  The pellet is dropped into the spot where the laser beams intersect; when the pellet reaches that spot, the lasers fire, compressing the pellet to achieve the conditions for fusion (light carries momentum).  I presume that, in order to create actual power generation, pellets will be dropped, one after the other, with lasers repetitively firing.
>  
> This is a super-complicated scheme, which makes me wonder whether it can be used to produce energy continuously and reliably over months and years (assuming the energy can be extracted reliably and continuously).  Moreover, I wonder how many such installations power companies would build and install, and whether they will develop the technical competence to run them.  It will be interesting.
>  
> As a language purist of sorts, by the way, I object to the achievement being touted as a scientific breakthrough: It is an engineering breakthrough.
>  
>     -- Mike Alexander
>  
>  
>  
> On Monday, December 12, 2022 at 05:29:53 PM EST, Drew King (dking65 at kingconsulting.us) <dking65 at kingconsulting.us> wrote:
>  
>  
> All,
> 
> The Verge: A “scientific breakthrough” in nuclear fusion? How to watch the announcement tomorrow.
> https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/12/23505416/nuclear-fusion-scientific-breakthrough-how-to-watch-announcement-biden
> 
> -- 
> Drew King
> 
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