This BLOG is for LLNL present and past employees, friends of LLNL and anyone impacted by the privatization of the Lab to express their opinions and expose the waste, wrongdoing and any kind of injustice against employees and taxpayers by LLNS/DOE/NNSA.
The opinions stated are personal opinions. Therefore,
The BLOG author may or may not agree with them before making the decision to post them.
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Posts and comments are posted several times a day.
I have to agree, it is a dream that may never occur and funding is going be bye as it should simply because it is needed by what use to be called NAI. Maybe between NSA and NAI we'll remain alive free from a major disaster where are electricity can be obtained by building solar arrays that track the sun, geothermal plants, natural gas production, wind mills, wave machines, etc, ect, etc. We have definitely put our tax dollars in the wrong places and not that we have a water shortage we should be building desalination plants at warp speed.
building solar arrays that track the sun, geothermal plants, natural gas production, wind mills, wave machines, etc, ect, etc. We have definitely put our tax dollars in the wrong places and not that we have a water shortage we should be building desalination plants at warp speed.
March 22, 2014 at 9:01 AM
If production costs and federal subsidies are included, all of those (except natural gas) consume more value than they produce. Do some homework.
Thanks Steve Bodner ! A true beltway bandit. We really, really like Krypton Fluoride Lasers ! Incoherent, hardly focusable, no credible pulse shape capability, have to repair the blown up "hibachi" foils almost every shot. Definitely the right driver choice for ICF. Yay, right !
And what did NIF or any other new energy source of fuel research ever produce. How about absolutely nothing. I'll take all that was mentioned in March 22, 2014 at 9:01 AM post no matter what the cost. At least I would get something in return and it would make jobs for people for decades to come. You need to stop being a parasite on the government dole rooting for projects that only fill your pocket with an income.
You need to stop being a parasite on the government dole rooting for projects that only fill your pocket with an income.
March 23, 2014 at 7:46 AM
Who's doing that? Apparently you prefer rooting for projects that will empty your pockets and fill those of others. Keep pushing technologies that can only survive with massive government subsidies. If they are viable, they will succeed on their own. Did Henry Ford get government subsidies to develop the successor to horse-and-buggy technology?
" Did Henry Ford get government subsidies to develop the successor to horse-and-buggy technology?"
Maybe not the Gov't but private money. Rockefeller was anxious to sell crude to his refinery buddies. Standard oil remember. I would not be surprised if Rockefeller threw some change to old Henry.
That's private capital investment funding, not government subsidies - just how new technology ventures should be funded. Let the people who see opportunity for profit risk their money, instead of dumbass government bureaucrats picking winners and losers by risking taxpayer money.
The "Thanks Steve Bodner" comment was brought to my attention. The person seems to have a poor understanding of direct-drive targets and KrF lasers, and appears to be pugnacious. My guess is that anon is Ed Moses.
Incidentally, as to hibachi problems, the Electra KrF laser has operated 50,000 consecutive shots at five pulses per second. As for focusability, the target is about a millimeter in diameter. The genius of ISI optical smoothing is that it produces an ultra-uniform laser beam at the millimeter size, and can be zoomed inward as the target implodes, to improve coupling efficiency. As for pulse shaping, it is more difficult than for glass, but designs show it can meet the requirements. It can even produce short pulses and shocks to enhance target performance. Not possible in a hohlraum.
From a science perspective ICF was very successful, for example tallying up all the countless papers that have been written, graduate students who have gotten PhDs, talks that have been given, industrial and university partnerships that have flourished. However, there is no endgame...
I disagree with your pessimism. The direct-drive target with a KrF laser is very promising. Not certain yet, and it needs more evaluation, but very promising. Download for example this recent article
The political question is whether funds can be found to further test this concept, given the mess that Moses and Lindl made. It will be difficult, but it is too early to determine.
Moses and Lindl crapped in the well and poisoned the water, so technical arguments will fall on deaf ears in Washington, most especially in DOE. There is a huge credibility gap that may well be insurmountable, just staggering incompetence. Interesting article, however. Perhaps with time, and especially with a complete changover in the people running what remains of ICF at LLNL, there might again be some kind of honest unified front in the field. Too early to say.
NIF was intended to be, and always was, a weapons science facility. Anyone who pretends otherwise is a leech on the public money artery. The fact that management of it was given to such leeches is unfortunate for having destroyed the reputation of the facility and obscured its real (and only) value.
"NIF was intended to be, and always was, a weapons science facility. Anyone who pretends otherwise is a leech on the public money artery."
...and yet I've heard numerous knowledgeable individuals comment that the Weapons side of the LLNL house did not need or want NIF. The fusion energy mission of NIF inspired all of us to work doubly hard to complete the project. If it was just a weapons machine, I don't think that NIF as a laser/target interaction facility would have been completed. Just my opinion.
Correct. A weapons science facility would probably look very different in detail, and certainly would have been designed for weapons science experiment by weapons scientists. Misinformed individuals in the public often claim NIF is really a weapons machine, as if ICF was some sort of "cover" to hide the dark secret mission, but that ain't right at all.
And amazingly, the disinformation that NIF was about fusion energy for the masses, fooled even the scientists working on the project! Goebbels couldn't have pulled it off better.
There will never be "fusion energy for the masses," at least not powered by multi-billion-dollar lasers. Even the most dishonest of the scientists who have lived off this lie for many years realize this in their hearts. But the money and the careers were there, so they took them. Taxpayers be damned.
23 comments:
I have to agree, it is a dream that may never occur and funding is going be bye as it should simply because it is needed by what use to be called NAI. Maybe between NSA and NAI we'll remain alive free from a major disaster where are electricity can be obtained by building solar arrays that track the sun, geothermal plants, natural gas production, wind mills, wave machines, etc, ect, etc. We have definitely put our tax dollars in the wrong places and not that we have a water shortage we should be building desalination plants at warp speed.
building solar arrays that track the sun, geothermal plants, natural gas production, wind mills, wave machines, etc, ect, etc. We have definitely put our tax dollars in the wrong places and not that we have a water shortage we should be building desalination plants at warp speed.
March 22, 2014 at 9:01 AM
If production costs and federal subsidies are included, all of those (except natural gas) consume more value than they produce. Do some homework.
Thanks Steve Bodner ! A true beltway bandit. We really, really like Krypton Fluoride Lasers ! Incoherent, hardly focusable, no credible pulse shape capability, have to repair the blown up "hibachi" foils almost every shot. Definitely the right driver choice for ICF. Yay, right !
March 22, 2014 at 9:27 AM
And what did NIF or any other new energy source of fuel research ever produce. How about absolutely nothing. I'll take all that was mentioned in March 22, 2014 at 9:01 AM post no matter what the cost. At least I would get something in return and it would make jobs for people for decades to come. You need to stop being a parasite on the government dole rooting for projects that only fill your pocket with an income.
Same old stuff, nothing new there, move along...
Omar will be getting a noble price in 5-10 years.
You need to stop being a parasite on the government dole rooting for projects that only fill your pocket with an income.
March 23, 2014 at 7:46 AM
Who's doing that? Apparently you prefer rooting for projects that will empty your pockets and fill those of others. Keep pushing technologies that can only survive with massive government subsidies. If they are viable, they will succeed on their own. Did Henry Ford get government subsidies to develop the successor to horse-and-buggy technology?
" Did Henry Ford get government subsidies to develop the successor to horse-and-buggy technology?"
Maybe not the Gov't but private money. Rockefeller was anxious to sell crude to his refinery buddies. Standard oil remember. I would not be surprised if Rockefeller threw some change to old Henry.
That's private capital investment funding, not government subsidies - just how new technology ventures should be funded. Let the people who see opportunity for profit risk their money, instead of dumbass government bureaucrats picking winners and losers by risking taxpayer money.
The "Thanks Steve Bodner" comment was brought to my attention. The person seems to have a poor understanding of direct-drive targets and KrF lasers, and appears to be pugnacious. My guess is that anon is Ed Moses.
Incidentally, as to hibachi problems, the Electra KrF laser has operated 50,000 consecutive shots at five pulses per second. As for focusability, the target is about a millimeter in diameter. The genius of ISI optical smoothing is that it produces an ultra-uniform laser beam at the millimeter size, and can be zoomed inward as the target implodes, to improve coupling efficiency. As for pulse shaping, it is more difficult than for glass, but designs show it can meet the requirements. It can even produce short pulses and shocks to enhance target performance. Not possible in a hohlraum.
ICF is dead anyways, Moses killed it, so it isn't worth spending time arguing about what the best driver is.
"ICF is dead anyways, Moses killed it,"
aided and abetted by LLNL upper level management.
"ICF is dead anyways, Moses killed it,"
aided and abetted by LLNL upper level management.
March 25, 2014 at 6:14 PM
And rightly so. It is past time to do away with the scientific farce and fallacy that is ICF.
From a science perspective ICF was very successful, for example tallying up all the countless papers that have been written, graduate students who have gotten PhDs, talks that have been given, industrial and university partnerships that have flourished. However, there is no endgame...
I disagree with your pessimism. The direct-drive target with a KrF laser is very promising. Not certain yet, and it needs more evaluation, but very promising. Download for example this recent article
https://www.academia.edu/6453025/HighPowerLaserScienceandEngineering_Laser_requirements_for_a_laser_fusion_energy_power_plant
The political question is whether funds can be found to further test this concept, given the mess that Moses and Lindl made. It will be difficult, but it is too early to determine.
Amazing how many people who should know better still believe that NIF was built to develop laser fusion power.
Moses and Lindl crapped in the well and poisoned the water, so technical arguments will fall on deaf ears in Washington, most especially in DOE. There is a huge credibility gap that may well be insurmountable, just staggering incompetence. Interesting article, however. Perhaps with time, and especially with a complete changover in the people running what remains of ICF at LLNL, there might again be some kind of honest unified front in the field. Too early to say.
NIF was intended to be, and always was, a weapons science facility. Anyone who pretends otherwise is a leech on the public money artery.
The fact that management of it was given to such leeches is unfortunate for having destroyed the reputation of the facility and obscured its real (and only) value.
"NIF was intended to be, and always was, a weapons science facility. Anyone who pretends otherwise is a leech on the public money artery."
...and yet I've heard numerous knowledgeable individuals comment that the Weapons side of the LLNL house did not need or want NIF. The fusion energy mission of NIF inspired all of us to work doubly hard to complete the project. If it was just a weapons machine, I don't think that NIF as a laser/target interaction facility would have been completed. Just my opinion.
Correct. A weapons science facility would probably look very different in detail, and certainly would have been designed for weapons science experiment by weapons scientists. Misinformed individuals in the public often claim NIF is really a weapons machine, as if ICF was some sort of "cover" to hide the dark secret mission, but that ain't right at all.
The fusion energy mission of NIF inspired all of us to work doubly hard to complete the project.
March 27, 2014 at 10:36 PM
Taxpayer-funded massive delusion.
And amazingly, the disinformation that NIF was about fusion energy for the masses, fooled even the scientists working on the project! Goebbels couldn't have pulled it off better.
There will never be "fusion energy for the masses," at least not powered by multi-billion-dollar lasers. Even the most dishonest of the scientists who have lived off this lie for many years realize this in their hearts. But the money and the careers were there, so they took them. Taxpayers be damned.
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