13 years to limitless energy...
- Thread starter Spursex
- Start date
Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
Now we have a new trade deal with Australia I was thinking how long a ship takes to make the trip to the UK. I figured the top speed to be around 30 knots. But I found out a recently developed Aussie Ferry Boat can achieve 58 knots.
32 days could be 20 or so instead. And, just how fast could a large ship go in the future and what power source ?
32 days could be 20 or so instead. And, just how fast could a large ship go in the future and what power source ?
Spursex
Alert Team
depends on how large a ship you're thinking off - all the fastest boats at the moment are fairly small, although some with hydrofoils can go a pretty good lick
Greavswasthegreatest
Vital Football Legend
An airship floats ma boat!
Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
This 58 knot vessel was a ferry.
Spursex
Alert Team
That's still small, we have warships that can go faster and are bigger.
Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
Built by Incat. Gross Weight is 17,000 tons. Close to 100 metres long. These could be 2013 figures, not sure.
Greavswasthegreatest
Vital Football Legend
You are not rowing are you guys? (heh)
Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
Ex is, I'm trying to examine the potential travelling time by sea in the future !!
Spursex
Alert Team
LOL!
I'm trying to add context. i.e. how big do you envisage as this will dictate the speed it's capable of now or in the future!
D
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Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
The speed of big ships doesn't seem to have moved on much since the 1930s. There might be a ceiling as to how fast they can go and be safe.
Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
Fuel consumption seems to be a problem. Operators are looking to slow ships down at the moment due to fossil fuel costs. There is a Hydrogen powered ferry being built but safety is a concern as are potential nuclear powered vessels.
D
Departed
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What is the problem with hydrogen? We already have propane and LNG powered vehicles.
D
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Greavswasthegreatest
Vital Football Legend
Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
I try to engage on a scientific subject and it's de-railed into toilet humour or so called humour.
Greavswasthegreatest
Vital Football Legend
Thats because I studied Geology at UNi not science mate! So if the thread was about rocks and fossils and gemstones I could talk copiously about that subject....I do know about fossil fuels of course....but they are dead in the water...(get it!)
Spursex
Alert Team
Scientists hail breakthrough in nuclear fusion as most significant in 50 years
Experiment moves the world closer to the dream of clean energy
new
Rhys Blakely, Science Correspondent
Wednesday August 18 2021, 9.00am, The Times
Drew Willard, a senior mechanical technologist, adjusts a pulse compressor, part of the optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification laser system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
JASON LAUREA
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Scientists hailed a breakthrough yesterday that may move the world closer to the dream of near-limitless clean energy through nuclear fusion.
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California appeared to have demonstrated “fusion ignition” for the first time — roughly the equivalent to striking a match that leads to a sustained fusion reaction of the kind seen at the centre of the sun.
Arthur Turrell, from the department of physics at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the work, said the American team had overcome “some of the most fearsome scientific and engineering challenges that humanity has ever taken on”, adding: “This phenomenal breakthrough brings us tantalisingly close to a demonstration of net energy gain from fusion reactions — just when the planet needs it.”
There were caveats: the $10 billion experiment released only about enough energy to boil a kettle and the production of usable power through fusion will require a fundamentally different kind of reactor. However, experts said that a key threshold appeared to have been reached for the first time.
Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the sun. Unlike fission, the reaction used in nuclear power plants, it involves joining rather than splitting atoms, meaning that there is almost no radioactive waste.
To make it work, though, requires maintaining temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees. It also needs a reactor capable of producing more energy than is pumped into it to start and contain the fusion reaction — something that has remained out of reach.
The latest experiment involved focusing a laser light, generated by a plant called the National Ignition Facility that is the size of three football fields, onto a target capsule of fuel about 5mm wide. This produced a hotspot the diameter of a human hair. The experiment generated more than ten quadrillion watts of fusion power for 100 trillionths of a second — energy released when hydrogen atoms in the fuel capsule were fused into helium.
Importantly, the fusion reactions appeared to be self-sustaining. Particles darting outward from the centre of the hotspot heated surrounding hydrogen atoms, and caused them to fuse as well.
The laboratory broke its own record for energy released from a nuclear fusion reaction, producing eight times more than previously achieved.
In the experiment, about two thirds of the energy delivered to it in the form of laser light was released from nuclear fusion reactions. That means it still fails as an energy source, but scientists believe that improvements in output will be possible.
Professor Jeremy Chittenden, of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London, said that one of science’s toughest challenges had been met. “What happened . . . was the first fusion experiment to demonstrate the ignition spark, but larger scale experiments may be required before a significant fraction of the fuel is burnt,” he said.
“While the [National Ignition Facility] is primarily a physics experiment, and does not have the main goal of creating fusion energy, this incredible result means that this dream is closer to being a reality. We have now proven it is possible to reach ignition, giving inspiration to other laboratories and start-ups around the world working on fusion energy production to try to realise the same conditions using a simpler, more robust and above all cheaper method.”
Other researchers agreed that results were some of the most significant in the field in half a century. “What has been achieved has completely altered the fusion landscape and we can now look forward to using ignited plasmas for both scientific discovery and energy production,” Professor Steven Rose, also of Imperial College London, said.
Dr Aidan Crilly, a research associate in the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies, said: “Reproducing the conditions at the centre of the sun will allow us to study states of matter we’ve never been able to create in the lab before, including those found in stars and supernovae.
“We could also gain insights into quantum states of matter and even conditions closer and closer to the beginning of the Big Bang — the hotter we get, the closer we get to the very first state of the universe.”
Experiment moves the world closer to the dream of clean energy
new
Rhys Blakely, Science Correspondent
Wednesday August 18 2021, 9.00am, The Times
Drew Willard, a senior mechanical technologist, adjusts a pulse compressor, part of the optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification laser system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
JASON LAUREA
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Scientists hailed a breakthrough yesterday that may move the world closer to the dream of near-limitless clean energy through nuclear fusion.
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California appeared to have demonstrated “fusion ignition” for the first time — roughly the equivalent to striking a match that leads to a sustained fusion reaction of the kind seen at the centre of the sun.
Arthur Turrell, from the department of physics at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the work, said the American team had overcome “some of the most fearsome scientific and engineering challenges that humanity has ever taken on”, adding: “This phenomenal breakthrough brings us tantalisingly close to a demonstration of net energy gain from fusion reactions — just when the planet needs it.”
There were caveats: the $10 billion experiment released only about enough energy to boil a kettle and the production of usable power through fusion will require a fundamentally different kind of reactor. However, experts said that a key threshold appeared to have been reached for the first time.
Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the sun. Unlike fission, the reaction used in nuclear power plants, it involves joining rather than splitting atoms, meaning that there is almost no radioactive waste.
To make it work, though, requires maintaining temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees. It also needs a reactor capable of producing more energy than is pumped into it to start and contain the fusion reaction — something that has remained out of reach.
The latest experiment involved focusing a laser light, generated by a plant called the National Ignition Facility that is the size of three football fields, onto a target capsule of fuel about 5mm wide. This produced a hotspot the diameter of a human hair. The experiment generated more than ten quadrillion watts of fusion power for 100 trillionths of a second — energy released when hydrogen atoms in the fuel capsule were fused into helium.
Importantly, the fusion reactions appeared to be self-sustaining. Particles darting outward from the centre of the hotspot heated surrounding hydrogen atoms, and caused them to fuse as well.
The laboratory broke its own record for energy released from a nuclear fusion reaction, producing eight times more than previously achieved.
In the experiment, about two thirds of the energy delivered to it in the form of laser light was released from nuclear fusion reactions. That means it still fails as an energy source, but scientists believe that improvements in output will be possible.
Professor Jeremy Chittenden, of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London, said that one of science’s toughest challenges had been met. “What happened . . . was the first fusion experiment to demonstrate the ignition spark, but larger scale experiments may be required before a significant fraction of the fuel is burnt,” he said.
“While the [National Ignition Facility] is primarily a physics experiment, and does not have the main goal of creating fusion energy, this incredible result means that this dream is closer to being a reality. We have now proven it is possible to reach ignition, giving inspiration to other laboratories and start-ups around the world working on fusion energy production to try to realise the same conditions using a simpler, more robust and above all cheaper method.”
Other researchers agreed that results were some of the most significant in the field in half a century. “What has been achieved has completely altered the fusion landscape and we can now look forward to using ignited plasmas for both scientific discovery and energy production,” Professor Steven Rose, also of Imperial College London, said.
Dr Aidan Crilly, a research associate in the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies, said: “Reproducing the conditions at the centre of the sun will allow us to study states of matter we’ve never been able to create in the lab before, including those found in stars and supernovae.
“We could also gain insights into quantum states of matter and even conditions closer and closer to the beginning of the Big Bang — the hotter we get, the closer we get to the very first state of the universe.”
Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
I had a discussion with my wife about Lithium and where its found etc. One of the questions was....is there enough and how long will it last ?
I did a little digging ( not for Lithium) but to find out the potential alternatives. Apparently Lithium is very similar to Sodium ( Salt ). Sodium seems to have less output energy wise though. But Magnesium is an alternative with better energy. A new type of battery is being worked on known as a glass battery where Sodium is combined with glass and given promising results. Also fuel cell technology could be developed, even electricity producing liquid could be pumped into vehicles instead of fuel.
I have not gone into detail yet but it looks promising and we may not be held to ransome by the Lithium boys.
I did a little digging ( not for Lithium) but to find out the potential alternatives. Apparently Lithium is very similar to Sodium ( Salt ). Sodium seems to have less output energy wise though. But Magnesium is an alternative with better energy. A new type of battery is being worked on known as a glass battery where Sodium is combined with glass and given promising results. Also fuel cell technology could be developed, even electricity producing liquid could be pumped into vehicles instead of fuel.
I have not gone into detail yet but it looks promising and we may not be held to ransome by the Lithium boys.
