A Tokamak Fusion Reactor

 

Some news has been circulating in my circles which has just cemented for me how bad it is in DC with the current liberal Democrat control (or lack of therein) of the Federal Government. I have never seen a more confused or incoherent lot in my life. They put on a facade of understanding what they are doing, but their actions (not their words) demonstrate that any 3rd grade class in America could do better at defining and implementing a strategy to get the nation back on track.

We know the general pattern since Obama took office: wild, unfocused, out of control pork spending which has bankrupt the country badly in just one year (see graph below). What would be two presidential terms of deficit spending in one year!

We have a treasury team stumbling along with no real plans, just disastrous press conferences. We have a Chicken Little-in-Chief crying crisis as he gins up one massive spending bill after another. We have son of Spendulus coming because the historic debt from last month is apparently not enough. It is a growing disaster of epic proportions (no exaggeration intended).

What crystalized this mess for me was the deletion of a very important and ongoing program (i.e., money goes to work right now) which could free the world of hydro-carbon based energy without the blight of endless windmill or solar panel farms. It is the promise of unlimited, virtually clean energy which the US is on the verge of tapping right now. It is the greenest of causes, the most amazing energy resource in the known universe, a high tech leap that has any number of offshoots – and it has been cancelled.

In this tsunami of government spending, the opportunity to harness nuclear fusion based power has been ended, replaced with dog runs and bike paths in the Spendulus pork buster bill! How did this happen? Here is an overview on the program and its potential:

The sun and the stars burn hot in the cold, infinite depths of space because of nuclear fusion, where hydrogen atoms combine to form heavier elements with the release of energy. If mankind could harness this fusion process, we would have nearly unlimited fuel with little or no pollution.

Although fusion has been achieved in the hydrogen bomb, researchers have been looking for over 50 years to tame it for electrical power. Taking up the daunting challenge, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is embarked on a program to reach this goal by using a new technology.

With SAIC’s help, the NRL is spearheading a promising approach to fusion where beams from the world’s largest krypton-fluoride (KrF) laser compress and heat a pellet containing deuterium and tritium “fuel” that burns to form helium and energy in a thermonuclear reaction.

More technical details here on the Nike Laser Fusion program that has been making steady progress for two decades just outside DC. And here are some publications from a symposium NRL hosted in 2004 regarding energy issues (note this is under the Bush administration). Here is an overview of nuclear fusion as a power source. Here is more on the potential of fusion energy:

Fusion power would provide much more energy for a given weight of fuel than any technology currently in use, and the fuel itself (primarily deuterium) exists abundantly in the Earth’s ocean: about 1 in 6500 hydrogen atoms in seawater is deuterium. Although this may seem a low proportion (about 0.015%), because nuclear fusion reactions are so much more energetic than chemical combustion and seawater is easier to access and more plentiful than fossil fuels, some experts estimate that fusion could supply the world’s energy needs for millions of years.

… fusion power has many of the benefits of long-term renewable energy sources (such as being a sustainable energy supply compared to presently-utilized sources and emitting no greenhouse gases) …

Seems almost mythical, doesn’t it? So what could possibly be a higher priority to DC liberals than tapping this limitless energy supply? Why, in this era of out of control spending, was there no money for this work?

Here are some of the projects in the Spendulus bill which took precedence over this history changing research:

• $33,725 has been set aside to install automatically-flushing toilets in the city of Sumter , South Carolina.
• $500,000 has been set aside to build a dog park in Chula Vista , California.
• $886,000 has been set aside to build a 36-hole disc-golf course in Austin , Texas.
• $1.4 MILLION has been set aside to build a water park in Pine Bluff , Arkansas.
• $2 MILLION has been set aside to help residents in North Miami, Florida, switch over to energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs.
• $650 MILLION has been set aside to provide digital TV coupons.

A fraction of the last item alone could keep the research going for years. I think the dog park projects piss me off the most. We seem to be more concerned about pooping puppies than economic survival and energy independence.

Many liberal-leaning media elite are starting to see the light – sadly too late and not clear enough. But it is starting. The problem is, they still think the clowns can turn things around! Here is Howard Fineman on the mess:

Obama still has the approval of the people, but the establishment is beginning to mumble that the president may not have what it takes.

…

But there is only one question on this great test of American fate: can he lead us away from plunging into another Depression?

Obama may be mistaking motion for progress, calling signals for a game plan. A busy, industrious overachiever, he likes to check off boxes on a long to-do list. A genial, amenable guy, he likes to appeal to every constituency, or at least not write off any. A beau ideal of Harvard Law, he can’t wait to tackle extra-credit answers on the exam.

I am beginning to think Obama’s lack of experience, combined with the radically insane liberal leaders he is dealing with in Congress, is a bridge too far for this young president. I mean, when do we stop blaming the team and blame the boss?

Yes, free the president from his flacks, fixers and goons — his posse of smirky smart alecks and provincial rubes, who were shrewd enough to beat the slow, pompous Clintons in the mano-a-mano primaries but who seem like dazed lost lambs in the brave new world of federal legislation and global statesmanship.

Heads should be rolling at the White House for the embarrassing series of flubs that have overshadowed President Obama’s first seven weeks in office and given the scattered, demoralized Republicans a huge boost toward regrouping and resurrection. (Michelle, please use those fabulous toned arms to butt some heads!)

First it was that chaotic pig rut of a stimulus package, which let House Democrats throw a thousand crazy kitchen sinks into what should have been a focused blueprint for economic recovery. Then it was the stunt of unnerving Wall Street by sending out a shrill duo of slick geeks (Timothy Geithner and Peter Orszag) as the administration’s weirdly adolescent spokesmen on economics. Who could ever have confidence in that sorry pair?

That from unabashed liberal commentator Camille Paglia. This all assumes the problems we see don’t actually emanate from the very top. Is the problem only the team? Doubtful. This is a reflection on the leadership.

When dog runs and flushing toilets get priority over the holy grail of energy options, you know the people are screwing up royally. This doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out.

For that matter, if there was one threat to the carbon tax, cap-and-trade charade it would be cheap limitless energy. A break through in nuclear fusion would make the cap-and-trade concept an irrelevant folly. All we would have to do is invest to transform the carbon based energy sources on the power grid to nuclear fusion – cheap and clean energy without the carbon tax. Coincidence?

Tags: Democrats, Laser Fusion, Nike, Obama, Stimulus Bill