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Mr Grufty Jim Sir !!
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grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Z Accelerator
Dec 13, 2001, 13:20
hey morfe,

just had a look over the Sandia labs page, and it sparked off a memory that sent me scurrying to the archives of an energy mailing list.

the Z-Machine / Z-Accelerator is basically one of a number of nuclear fusion projects currently on the boil (pun intended). and as i said previously, i do think fusion is the most likely of the "technology saves the day" scenarios for the future.

however, we are a long long way from it becoming a reality. i've yet to read a single message from someone working in the field who thinks it will go beyond the "theoretical" within the next 20 years. and if we see a major economic collapse before then? well, it's unlikely it'll ever happen.

one subscriber to the mailing list has a friend at Sandia (albeit in the solar energy dept) and he didn't object to the consensus that 2020 is a very optimistic prediction for commercial fusion... there are so many massive problems still to be overcome, and there's a substantial body of opinion that thinks fusion will never get beyond the theoretical.

on the other hand, technology has a habit of surprising us, and if Sandia (or CERN or JPL or someone else) announced tomorrow that they'd made the definitive fusion breakthrough and the first commercial reactors will be built next year... i wouldn't be surprised, and i would be very relieved.

but nor would it surprise me if that announcement was never made. certainly i hate to think that humanity is unconsciously betting its future on the theoretical possibility that is nuclear fusion.
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