laser-powered fusion?

[varek]

I was reading about super-dense materials, and I came across this old article.
Swedish scientists in 2009 were producing ultra-dense deuterium, which could be used for fusion, using lasers. The byproducts were thought to only be helium and hydrogen. Using ultra-dense deuterium would, they said, be "both more sustainable and less damaging to the environment than other methods that are being developed."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090511181356.htm

This was back in 2009. Here is a little bit more on it in 2010.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/01/winterberg-on-ultradense-deuterium.html

In 2013 the British Interplanetary Society's "Project Icarus" planned to use ultra-dense deuterium on a spaceship. It would carry deuterium in tanks, then convert it to UDD onboard.
http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/u...d-starship-project-icarus-workshop-update-44/

Has anyone heard about this being developed more recently?

 

[Yminale]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/12/275896094/scientists-say-their-giant-laser-has-produced-nuclear-fusion

Not sure if they are using a new deuterium formulation but I know they have made some improvements to reach ignition.

Here is the original article in Nature
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v506/n7488/full/nature13008.html

 

[varek]

So, apparently, the lasers would ignite a plasma needed to produce this energy.

http://www.nature.com/nature/archive/subject.html?code=1135

 

[JustAFriend]

So I'm guessing you haven't seen photos of the National Ignition Facility....

Been around for a while.

 

[Robert Comsol]

I'd be guessing most people have seen the National Ignition Facility in STID.

Now, I'd call that a huge leap forward from the Van Nuys Budweiser beer brewery plant from the previous movie, used to represent the engine room.

Reminds me of a spaceship design that once made the rounds. That guy suggested an FTL driven vehicle by beer. Comes the order "increase FTL Speed" everybody at the bar needed to drink twice as much and fast.

Bob