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View Full Version : Question for Ike-Is this for real?



jeremy885
7/25/2006, 07:51 AM
http://upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060724-065917-5783r


China to test its 'artificial sun'

BEIJING, July 24 (UPI) -- The first plasma discharge from China's experimental advanced superconducting research center -- the so-called "artificial sun" -- is set to occur next month.

The discharge, expected about Aug. 15, will be conducted at Science Island in Hefei, in east China's Anhui Province, the Peoples Daily reported Monday.

Scientists told the newspaper a successful test will mean the world's first nuclear fusion device of its kind will be ready to go into actual operation, the newspaper said.

The plasma discharge will draw international attention since some scientists are concerned with risks involved in such a process. But Chinese researchers involved in the project say any radiation will cease once the test is completed.

The experiment will take place in a structure made of reinforced concrete, with five-foot-thick walls and a three-foot-thick roof.

Has the US done anything similiar to this or have the Chinese surpassed us in science now?

SoonerInKCMO
7/25/2006, 09:16 AM
Bah. I can do the same thing with the #3 combo from Taco Bell and a match.

OklahomaTuba
7/25/2006, 09:28 AM
They probably stole the idea from a US company.

The Chinese last produced an original thought about 5,000 years ago.

Chuck Bao
7/25/2006, 09:51 AM
They probably stole the idea from a US company.

Yeah, like 4,000 years ago.

Vaevictis
7/25/2006, 10:42 AM
The Chinese last produced an original thought about 5,000 years ago.

If you're trying to be funny, fine, but if you really believe that, you're in for a big suprise. They're churning out the scientists and engineers right now.

yermom
7/25/2006, 10:57 AM
i wonder who is running that thing?

http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/6324/128072xdfcwyb2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Ike
7/25/2006, 11:15 AM
hmmm...I'll have to check into it some more. Somehow I doubt the claims that a successful test will indicate a working fusion reactor. those are very very hard to build, and even harder to keep stable for an extended time. We've been working on one (currently in collaboration with our European friends at an experiment known as ITER) for quite some time now.

I am however not surprised in the least that China is also working on fusion reactors. Their energy needs are growing at a pace thats difficult to keep up with.

jeremy885
7/25/2006, 11:36 AM
Now I remember about the ITER. Aren't they still discussing where to build it, with the Europeans wanting it in France and the US and Japanense wanting it in Japan?

Why didn't we ever start one ourselves, or did the super-collider in the 80's kill all chances for big budget scientific experiments in the US?

Ike
7/25/2006, 11:44 AM
Now I remember about the ITER. Aren't they still discussing where to build it, with the Europeans wanting it in France and the US and Japanense wanting it in Japan?

Why didn't we ever start one ourselves, or did the super-collider in the 80's kill all chances for big budget scientific experiments in the US?

site location has been set. It'll be in France I believe. I think construction has already started.

big budget scientific experiments aren't completely dead in the US. The SSC however was a serious lesson for us science types in how to go about making sure that they are seen through to completion....we kinda went about it all wrong. Anyway, there is talk that we conceeded ITER to france in order to be in a better position to land the ILC.

TheHumanAlphabet
7/25/2006, 11:48 AM
The best the west has been able to do is to generate a plasma/fusion reaction for a brief time (miliseconds?) that generated more energy than it consumed. A working reactor is long in the future, but progressing. If the ChiComs have really a working reactor then they have leapfrogged everybody else. Perhaps they have a test device that will sustain itself briefly.

skycat
7/25/2006, 11:51 AM
If you're trying to be funny, fine, but if you really believe that, you're in for a big suprise. They're churning out the scientists and engineers right now.

I can't really speak to the pure sciences, but I can tell you, that while improving, it is rather hard to hire a large, first-rate engineering team in China.

India, on the other hand...

GDC
7/25/2006, 12:03 PM
I didn't think the problem was sustaining a fusion reaction, I thought it containment issues.

yermom
7/25/2006, 12:05 PM
i'd guess they are pretty similar