Rezwan
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Rezwan
ParticipantThe whole process is flawed: http://www.fusionenergyleague.org/index.php/blog/article/us_budget_process
Which is why I’m most interested in private sector. http://www.fusionenergyleague.org/index.php/blog/article/fusion_finance_conversation_invitation
ParticipantNot out of the woods yet. http://www.fusionenergyleague.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/36/
ParticipantYep. Pesky filters.
Separately, papers on plasma islands were beginning to surface in scientific circles. French physicist Paul-Henri Rebut described radiation-driven islands in a mid-1980s conference paper, but not in a periodical. German physicist Wolfgang Suttrop speculated a decade later that the islands were associated with the density limit. “The paper he wrote was actually the trigger for our idea, but he didn’t relate the islands directly to the Greenwald limit,” said Gates, who had worked with Suttrop on a tokamak experiment at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany, in 1996 before joining PPPL the following year.
Why hadn’t researchers pieced together a similar theory of the density-limit puzzle before? The answer, says Gates, lies in how ideas percolate through the scientific community. “The radiation-driven islands idea never got a lot of press,” he says. “People thought of them as curiosities. The way we disseminate information is through publications, and this idea had a weak initial push.”
But a lot of this story is also about how individual scientists meet and talk face to face or email and call each other personally. Gets back to relationships.
In early 2011, the topic of plasma islands had mostly receded from Gates’ mind. But a talk by Delgado-Aparicio about the possibility of such islands erupting in the plasmas contained within the Alcator C-Mod tokamak reignited his interest. Delgado-Aparicio spoke of corkscrew-shaped phenomena called snakes that had first been been observed by PPPL scientists in the 1980s and initially reported by German physicist Arthur Weller.
Intrigued by the talk, Gates urged Delgado-Aparicio to read the papers on islands by Rebut and Suttrop. An email from Delgado-Aparicio landed in Gates’ in-box some eight months later. In it was a paper that described the behavior of snakes in a way that fit nicely with the C-Mod data. “I said, ‘Wow! He’s made a lot of progress,’” Gates remembers. “I said, ‘You should come down and talk about this.’”
ParticipantYes, is the “corkscrew-shaped phenomenon called snakes” the same type of thing as the “kinking telephone cord”?
FYI, discussion of this also on Fusion Energy League site.
It’s neat how on this site the news is filtered through a DPF lens. Feel free to make some of those remarks over on FEL.
April 23, 2012 at 9:32 pm in reply to: CNBC Business Wire features Lawrenceville Plasma Physics #11782ParticipantThanks Matt! I have now posted that on Facebook.
Speaking of which, did I give you posting to blog privileges? We need more people with that capacity to also make these blog posts. Let me know!
ParticipantFunny!
FYI, I’ve posted an updated review of the Bill Gates TED talk on Fusion Energy League: http://www.fusionenergyleague.org/index.php/blog/article/100
ParticipantGreat newsletter, Derek!
My favorite comment: “Going to war for energy is like burning down your house for heat.” by AC. Where are those comments to be found online?
And who is AC – does AC have a twitter account?
ParticipantExcellent! You are amazing!
I don’t get the security warning.
ParticipantGreat! I’ve facebook and tweeted the instructions.
ParticipantAnd a big thank you to Derek Shannon for setting up the website and petition!
ParticipantThanks! Although credit where it’s due. I’m all talk (for example, bringing up the Iran fusion angle when meeting Rep Frelinghuysen at Fusion Day), these guys are the action: Original signers: Eric Lerner, LPPhysics, NJ; Dr. Hamid Yousefi, I.A. University-Tehran; Dr. Morteza Habibi, Amirkabir U., Tehran
tcg wrote:
It must be said that not everyone would welcome a chance to defuse international tensions.De FUSE!
March 14, 2012 at 6:17 pm in reply to: US National Academies panel recommends expanding alternative nuclear fusion experiments #11613Participantwillit wrote:
if we are going to get a fire under our butt it will be at 11:30 with time (resources) dwindling and economic crisis looming.Here’s something to stoke the fire: http://aenr.org
ParticipantOh, wait. That worked. It’s just you, Brian.
ParticipantOK, I fixed the smileys, but can’t see why it stopped automatically hyperlinking. https://focusfusion.org
:ahhh:
ParticipantHi All! New posts on fusion budget woes at Fusion Energy League.
Also, regarding petitions – make sure you’ve signed the Alcator C-Mod petitions!
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