Sandia fusion

From: scerir (scerir@libero.it)
Date: Wed Apr 09 2003 - 09:41:44 MDT

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    [I fwd this msg, it seems interesting. s.]

    The big news out of the April APS Meeting in Philadelphia this week
    (as reported by ScienceNow) is the report out of Sandia National Lab
    of the first ever hydrogen fusion using the Z pinch machine.
    Supposedly, they managed to compress the fuel pallet "... by a factor
    of 10, heated it up to over 2 million degrees kelvin, and created a
    microscopic hydrogen bomb in a bottle". Such a device, of course, is
    being considered as one viable technique in generating fusion energy
    source.

    Until such results are published, we don't have anymore details on
    this. You may read the details of the Z pinch machine at the link
    below:

    http://www.sandia.gov/pulspowr/facilities/zaccelerator.html

    On a personal note related to this, when I was an undergraduate, we
    made this contraption for an engineering Expo that we call the Theta
    Pinch (there was another unofficial name for it but it is too vulgar
    to put on here :)). It consisted basically of a very large capacitor
    that we can get a very high current from when we discharge it,
    connected to a solenoid surrounding a hollow tube that can fit a
    typical aluminum drinks can. When you discharge the capacitor through
    the solenoid, the large, time-varying current flowing through it
    causes a big axial magnetic field in the solenoid. Since this field
    is also time varying, via Lenz's Law, it will induce a separate
    current in the metallic can. The combination of this current in the
    can and the magnetic field causes a Lorentz force large enough to
    crush the can inwards (radially) in one single shot! This also caused
    a loud "POP".

    We were a big hit, to say the least, especially with the kids who
    liked the "sound effect" and seeing the cans being squashed without
    any visible physical contact. We went through at least 400 aluminum
    cans during the 2-day Expo. Most of us were also on a sugar high from
    having to drink all those sugary sodas.

    Zz.



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