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So..we've got a budget for the next two years! Apparently a "hatchet
man" sits in the directors chair....when can we expect the next
RIF/VSIP?
Friday, February 28, 2014
When is next RIF/VSIP?
New Mexico nuke dump workers exposed...
Tests show New Mexico nuke dump workers exposed...
This looks bad!
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NUKE_REPOSITORY_RADIATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-26-19-25-18
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Thirteen workers were exposed to radiation during a recent leak at the nation's underground nuclear waste dump in southeastern New Mexico, according to the results of preliminary tests announced Wednesday.
The U.S. Department of Energy and the contractor that runs the Waste Isolation Pilot Project said in a joint news release that they have notified the workers of the positive results and will do further testing. They declined to comment further until a news conference Thursday afternoon.
This looks bad!
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NUKE_REPOSITORY_RADIATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-26-19-25-18
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Thirteen workers were exposed to radiation during a recent leak at the nation's underground nuclear waste dump in southeastern New Mexico, according to the results of preliminary tests announced Wednesday.
The U.S. Department of Energy and the contractor that runs the Waste Isolation Pilot Project said in a joint news release that they have notified the workers of the positive results and will do further testing. They declined to comment further until a news conference Thursday afternoon.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Assessing progress on laser fusion
AnonymousFebruary 25, 2014 at 7:44 AM
Laser Focus World
February 24, 2014
Assessing progress on laser fusion
Jeff Hecht
Publications from the Wall Street Journal to the Huffington Post hailed the new results from the National Ignition Facility in the February 20, 2014 issue of Nature as a "fusion breakthrough." The progress of the "high foot" experiments at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA) is welcome good news for inertial confinement fusion. But should it count as a "breakthrough" in the big picture of fusion research?
The "high foot" tests performed last fall illuminate the fusion hohlraum with extra laser power early in the laser pulse in an effort to improve the early stages of fuel compression. An August 2, 2013 test tripled the yield of fusion energy to about 8 kJ, and a test at the end of September did even better.
The Nature paper details results of those two tests and a third in November. As shown in the figure, the September 27 test reached a yield of 14 kJ and the November 19 test yielded 17 kJ. In the August test, the fusion energy yield fell just short of the x-ray energy from the hohlraum coupled to the deuterium-tritium fuel pellet. However, both the September and November tests yielded fusion energy that exceeded the x-ray energy delivered to the target. That's the first report of what a team led by Omar Hurricane calls "fuel gain exceeding unity."
That's a definite sign of progress. So is the increasing fraction of the fusion energy that comes from self-heating rather than from fuel compression, which dominates at lower yields. But NIF was built to demonstrate ignition of a fusion reaction, defined as generating more fusion energy than the 1.8 MJ delivered to the fusion target (i.e., the hohlraum containing the D-T pellet). The new results improved fusion yield by an order of magnitude over earlier D-T experiments, but two orders of magnitude remain to match the 1.8 MJ in the input laser pulse.
The "high foot" tests crucially showed that pulse shaping can reduce instability of the fuel implosion, which has been a crucial problem. But the "high foot" pulses do not scale simply to drive fuel implosions to ignition. "Hohlraum physics is limiting our ability to use the full power capability" of NIF, the authors write in Nature, so they are exploring new strategies. Taming those problems to see a clear path to ignition would be a breakthrough.
Even if NIF itself cannot reach ignition, it provides the experimental facilities we need to learn how to control fusion implosions. The real problem is the scale of the experiments needed to understand the inertial confinement fusion process well enough to control it. NIF cost $3.5 billion and took 15 years to complete, and we likely will need another even more costly testbed to validate what we learn from it. Finding that money will be a challenge.
February 24, 2014
Assessing progress on laser fusion
Jeff Hecht
Publications from the Wall Street Journal to the Huffington Post hailed the new results from the National Ignition Facility in the February 20, 2014 issue of Nature as a "fusion breakthrough." The progress of the "high foot" experiments at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA) is welcome good news for inertial confinement fusion. But should it count as a "breakthrough" in the big picture of fusion research?
The "high foot" tests performed last fall illuminate the fusion hohlraum with extra laser power early in the laser pulse in an effort to improve the early stages of fuel compression. An August 2, 2013 test tripled the yield of fusion energy to about 8 kJ, and a test at the end of September did even better.
The Nature paper details results of those two tests and a third in November. As shown in the figure, the September 27 test reached a yield of 14 kJ and the November 19 test yielded 17 kJ. In the August test, the fusion energy yield fell just short of the x-ray energy from the hohlraum coupled to the deuterium-tritium fuel pellet. However, both the September and November tests yielded fusion energy that exceeded the x-ray energy delivered to the target. That's the first report of what a team led by Omar Hurricane calls "fuel gain exceeding unity."
That's a definite sign of progress. So is the increasing fraction of the fusion energy that comes from self-heating rather than from fuel compression, which dominates at lower yields. But NIF was built to demonstrate ignition of a fusion reaction, defined as generating more fusion energy than the 1.8 MJ delivered to the fusion target (i.e., the hohlraum containing the D-T pellet). The new results improved fusion yield by an order of magnitude over earlier D-T experiments, but two orders of magnitude remain to match the 1.8 MJ in the input laser pulse.
The "high foot" tests crucially showed that pulse shaping can reduce instability of the fuel implosion, which has been a crucial problem. But the "high foot" pulses do not scale simply to drive fuel implosions to ignition. "Hohlraum physics is limiting our ability to use the full power capability" of NIF, the authors write in Nature, so they are exploring new strategies. Taming those problems to see a clear path to ignition would be a breakthrough.
Even if NIF itself cannot reach ignition, it provides the experimental facilities we need to learn how to control fusion implosions. The real problem is the scale of the experiments needed to understand the inertial confinement fusion process well enough to control it. NIF cost $3.5 billion and took 15 years to complete, and we likely will need another even more costly testbed to validate what we learn from it. Finding that money will be a challenge.
Lawmakers Push Obama For National Ignition Facility Funding
Weapons Complex Monitor
February 24, 2014
Lawmakers Push Obama For National Ignition Facility Funding
Seventeen lawmakers—all but one from California—late last week urged President Obama to provide “strong and sustained” funding for the National Ignition Facility and inertial confinement fusion activities at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In a letter to President Obama Friday, the lawmakers, led by Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), noted recent advancements at NIF, which has thus far failed to achieve ignition.
Recent shots on the facility have been deemed a breakthrough on the path to ignition with the energy produced through the fusion reaction exceeding the amount of energy deposited into the fuel. “Just within the past few months, the NIF has recorded several record-breaking experimental shots,” the lawmakers wrote. “These newest results bring the experimental findings more closely in line with the theoretical models, highlighting a promising path forward for more groundbreaking high energy density physics. It is critical that we provide the resources necessary to continue this important work.”
NIF funding has come under pressure in recent years, in part due to the failure to achieve ignition. The lab has recently rebalanced the shots on the massive laser in favor of shots designed to improve knowledge for the Stockpile Stewardship Program while taking a more measured approach to understanding the physics of ignition. “The ongoing work of LLNL and the groundbreaking research being done at the NIF continue to ensure that the U.S. can abide by our moratorium on nuclear testing while maintaining a secure stockpile,” the lawmakers wrote. “Research conducted at the NIF also helps bring us towards a new energy future as we come closer to unlocking the potential of fusion energy. To ensure the U.S. continues to lead, it is critical to build upon the substantial investments already made and provide the NIF with funding that is stable and sufficient to carry out its mission and continue to advance ICF research.”
February 24, 2014
Lawmakers Push Obama For National Ignition Facility Funding
Seventeen lawmakers—all but one from California—late last week urged President Obama to provide “strong and sustained” funding for the National Ignition Facility and inertial confinement fusion activities at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In a letter to President Obama Friday, the lawmakers, led by Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), noted recent advancements at NIF, which has thus far failed to achieve ignition.
Recent shots on the facility have been deemed a breakthrough on the path to ignition with the energy produced through the fusion reaction exceeding the amount of energy deposited into the fuel. “Just within the past few months, the NIF has recorded several record-breaking experimental shots,” the lawmakers wrote. “These newest results bring the experimental findings more closely in line with the theoretical models, highlighting a promising path forward for more groundbreaking high energy density physics. It is critical that we provide the resources necessary to continue this important work.”
NIF funding has come under pressure in recent years, in part due to the failure to achieve ignition. The lab has recently rebalanced the shots on the massive laser in favor of shots designed to improve knowledge for the Stockpile Stewardship Program while taking a more measured approach to understanding the physics of ignition. “The ongoing work of LLNL and the groundbreaking research being done at the NIF continue to ensure that the U.S. can abide by our moratorium on nuclear testing while maintaining a secure stockpile,” the lawmakers wrote. “Research conducted at the NIF also helps bring us towards a new energy future as we come closer to unlocking the potential of fusion energy. To ensure the U.S. continues to lead, it is critical to build upon the substantial investments already made and provide the NIF with funding that is stable and sufficient to carry out its mission and continue to advance ICF research.”
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Megatons to Megawatts
Dawn Stover has an excellent piece that manages to combine disarmament with energy policy. Examining the successful Megatons to Megawatts program between Russia and the US, Stover points out "...there's no reason that the United States can't safely turn more its own weapons into fuel, a process that would not have to involve large risky shipments over such long distances."
I hope you find it of interest! Best, Janice
Keep turning those ploughshares into swords:
http://thebulletin.org/keep-turning-those-swords-plowshares
--Janice Sinclaire Internet Outreach Coordinator
I hope you find it of interest! Best, Janice
Keep turning those ploughshares into swords:
http://thebulletin.org/keep-turning-those-swords-plowshares
--Janice Sinclaire Internet Outreach Coordinator
interesting...
contributed by J. Franklin
http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2014/02/20/heres-bruce-held-said/#more-11729
http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2014/02/20/heres-bruce-held-said/#more-11729
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Physics Today has an article about what went wrong with the LANL/LLNL contract. http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstod...
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The budget has a 20% decrease to DOE office of science, 20% cut to NIH. NASA also gets a cut. This will have a huge negative effect on the ...
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Global Security Newswire U.S. Nuclear Weapons Agency to Delay Work on Interoperable Warhead By Global Security Newswire Staff February 18, ...
