Post AW4xpgCtMEIx4N3M0G by FourOh-LLC@pkteerium.xyz
 (DIR) More posts by FourOh-LLC@pkteerium.xyz
 (DIR) Post #AW4xpdS1bVcwWR6tfs by spaf@mstdn.social
       2023-05-26T14:28:59Z
       
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       I had a really interesting tour of the National Ignition Facility.  This is the huge building where they use lasers to create fusion in small hydrogen pellets, among other things.  The actual “machine”fills the building and requires 2000 computers to coordinate all the parts and analyze the results.  (Interestingly, much of the programming was in Ada.). They had to invent hundreds of new processes and components to build it.½
       
 (DIR) Post #AW4xpeSlqDolf2T0TY by hallam@infosec.exchange
       2023-05-26T14:54:59Z
       
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       @spaf Fusion power is almost certainly going to be a bust. But not because the National Ignition Facility failed, rather the reverse.An MIT team, Quaise had the idea of using the gyrotron developed for NIF to make deep bore holes for geothermal power. It is not certain that it will work but there is at least a 50/50 chance it will be delivering power at the test site within five years. And if it does, we will have absolutely no use for fusion because we will be able to exploit the natural fission reactor we are all sitting on safely and cheaply pretty much anywhere not on an actual fault line.So like the space program, blue sky research has real benefits but not necessarily the benefits expected. I remember something about some Internet project coming out of CERN a while back.
       
 (DIR) Post #AW4xpfIsiTVAGeqchU by spaf@mstdn.social
       2023-05-26T14:31:27Z
       
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       I’ve been on some interesting tours (e.g., NASA, CERN, an SSBM) and this ranks near the top.  Some really amazing engineering in support of leading edge science exploration here.  Once again, however, they were apparently warned in advance and I was not allowed to push any buttons, especially big red ones.  Maybe next tour.2/2
       
 (DIR) Post #AW4xpfROCqJ6h2pPxg by cstross@wandering.shop
       2023-05-26T20:13:17Z
       
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       @hallam @spaf naah, my money would be on orbital solar power sats. Space rated PV panels are getting ridiculously light and cheap; if SpaceX's starship hits it's goals then space-based solar will be an order of magnitude cheaper than nuclear within a decade or two.
       
 (DIR) Post #AW4xpgCtMEIx4N3M0G by FourOh-LLC@pkteerium.xyz
       2023-05-27T11:39:13.063945Z
       
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       Electricity has no shelf-life. What electricity does the best and the quickest is to expire.With the battery-powered electric vehicle industry, there is this borderline-schizophrenic attempt to ignore those facts.I welcome any safe and reasonable solution, improved or brand new, just please - no more, bigger batteries!
       
 (DIR) Post #AW4xphuB2mWUKuJR6u by spaf@mstdn.social
       2023-05-26T19:03:31Z
       
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       https://lasers.llnl.gov/about/what-is-nif