"Don't Throw MFE under the bus because of recent ICF failures"
This is a New York Times opinion piece that takes a blog post from PPPL director,
Excerpts:
The fact that ignition in a large American experimental inertial confinement fusion facility did not occur as hoped by Sept. 30 has sadly raised questions about the scientific legitimacy of that pursuit. That the scientists did not meet their goal by that day probably has little bearing on that field’s ultimate success. Importantly, this non-event should not bear any relation to the fate of other vital work centering on an entirely different approach known as magnetic fusion.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/in-defense-of-sustained-research-on-fusion/?ref=lawrencelivermorenationallaboratory
This is a New York Times opinion piece that takes a blog post from PPPL director,
Excerpts:
The fact that ignition in a large American experimental inertial confinement fusion facility did not occur as hoped by Sept. 30 has sadly raised questions about the scientific legitimacy of that pursuit. That the scientists did not meet their goal by that day probably has little bearing on that field’s ultimate success. Importantly, this non-event should not bear any relation to the fate of other vital work centering on an entirely different approach known as magnetic fusion.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/in-defense-of-sustained-research-on-fusion/?ref=lawrencelivermorenationallaboratory
Comments
Not that MFE couldn't be made to work. We (the US) just decided that it's not important enough and gave up on it.
We need more plasma physicist in this world and we need bigger government sponsored research programs to keep them employed no matter what. It's better to throw big money at them rather than at programs for elderly, lower income, or disabled. We've coddled the latter interest groups for far to long and enough is enough. If they are going to bleed our country dry, then plasma physicists better get their share of the pie too before the whole system collapses. It's only fair.
I concede that it is a valid question, whether MFE science spending is too much or too little or whether there is any value in something some see as science-for-the-sake-of-science. But expectations are that these programs go about it in an honest and trustworthy way, since it is tax-payer money being spent. This expectation was flagrantly ignored by top NIF management, as demonstrated through many years of PR campaign circus side-show. This was a very clear and blatant violation and abuse of public trust. The MFE community is right to distance themselves from this.
Say what you want about NIF, the gov't finally decided to accomplish something, and did. That's rare these days. And you can (and certainly will) argue that it was all due to a con-job, but even then, I argue it's better to have done it than to have pissed money away for decades like we are on MFE.
Brilliant = Ignition achieved
Outstanding = excellent technical work
Excellent = just okay , marginal
Superb = mixed bag of horse and cow manure
Well-received = they get credit for showing up to work and that's the best we can say about them
Promising = they were better off if they DIDN'T show up to work.
Stay tuned for more media translation guides and look for a version of NIF buzzword bingo. When you hear a buzzword or phrase you can mark that box. Can you be the first to get five in a row?
MFE has been on the skids for so long that everybody has forgotten that it had a reputation of "always being 20 years away" long before ICF was conceived.
I love MFE, and have no doubt it would work. IF we would just take it on. But we've shown for 30+ years that we're just not going to try hard enough. Too bad.
Jimmy "Peanuts" Carter
We got "conned" by LLNL for 12-years (and counting) beyond this "dream" bill.
This, with letting the Bush tax cuts expire for all, and increasing the medicare and social security age to 68 for all would go a long way toward making our kids futures brighter, with or without Mr. Fusion.