[wordup] email's getting old and fusion?

[Adam Shand]

Via: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/02/0111228
From: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011001/tc/tech_email_anniversary_dc_1.html

E-Mail Celebrates Its 30th Birthday
Monday October 1 7:35 PM ET
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - As great inventions go, e-mail had a rather ho-hum
beginning back in 1971.

In fact, Ray Tomlinson, the American engineer considered the ``father of
e-mail,'' can't quite recall when the first message was sent, what it
said, or even who the recipient was.

``I have no idea what the first one was,'' he told Reuters. ''It might
have been the first line from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address for all I know.
The only thing I know was it was all in upper case.''

Tomlinson, principal engineer at Cambridge, Mass.-based BBN Technologies,
finds himself in the spotlight again after all these years, having to
answer questions about the computer program he designed as it reaches its
30th birthday in the coming weeks.

... <snip> ...

Via: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/02/0221241&mode=flat
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/sci/tech/newsid_1573000/1573450.stm

Fusion power 'within reach'
By BBC News Online science editor Dr David Whitehouse
Monday, 1 October, 2001, 17:06 GMT 18:06 UK

Fusion power is "within reach", according to atomic scientists in the UK.

There are still very many difficulties but perhaps in a few decades we
could have commercial fusion reactors in cities providing cheap
pollution-free power Fusion is the form of nuclear energy that powers the
stars. Although, it has many advantages over conventional nuclear power,
it has been technically difficult to develop.

The best approach appears to be to confine a superhot gas, called a
plasma, in a magnetic field. Some success has been achieved this way using
huge experimental fusion reactors.

But now, according to United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)
scientists, making smaller versions of the same equipment may be
technically easier, cheaper and swifter to develop. The most recent
experiments show promise, they claim.

Leaner and swifter

"I believe that if our experiments are successful, and they are promising,
we could be designing the forerunner of the first commercial fusion
reactor," said UKAEA's Dr Alan Sykes, as he showed BBC News Online around
his laboratory at Culham, near Oxford.

Called Mast (Mega Amp Spherical Tokomak), the new equipment could be the
design breakthrough needed to make fusion power a reality - at long last.

It is a leaner version of a prototype fusion reactor that has already
solved many technical problems.

"Building Mast is like building a fighter aircraft when you have already
built an airliner. It could be faster and more efficient at reaching our
goal of significant fusion power," said Dr Rob Akers, of the UKAEA.

Star power

Few would argue that fusion power holds great promise.

It is the energy that allows the Sun to shine. But taming the power that
lights up the Universe is not proving easy. For almost 50 years,
scientists have been trying to harness star power in the laboratory.

To make nuclear fusion happen atoms must first be broken down into
electrons and atomic nuclei. This produces an electrically charged gas
called a plasma. The bare nuclei must then be forced together so that they
merge. Because like charges repel, this is difficult.

At the heart of our Sun, fusion takes place at a temperature of 15 million
degrees and a pressure of 100,000 atmospheres.

Because it is not possible to reproduce these conditions on Earth,
terrestrial fusion reactors must operate at lower pressures and higher
temperatures - about 100 million degrees.

There is also the major problem of confining the plasma.

'Naughty child'

"A plasma is a form of gas that has a great deal of free energy that is
just looking for a way out," explained Dr Akers. "You could say that
plasmas are like naughty children."

The best way to control the plasma is to "bottle" it, corralling the
electrically charged gas in powerful magnetic fields.

So far, the most successful magnetic bottle is a "tokomak", a
doughnut-shaped device invented by the Russians. In a tokomak, two
magnetic fields are combined to confine the plasma.

The world's largest tokomak is called Jet, the Joint European Torus. It is
also at Culham.

Using the Jet, scientists have heated plasma to 300 million degrees - more
than is needed to achieve fusion ignition. But magnetic confinement is
easier if the prototype reactor is small.

Smaller is better

"That is where Mast comes in," said UKEA's Dr Chris Warwick. "Mast keeps
the plasma in a tighter configuration that is more energy efficient."

Controlling the eddies and whirls of the writhing plasma so that it can
burst into life as a miniature Sun has been a formidable, and so far only
partially met, engineering challenge.

"If we follow the Mast idea and not the Jet one, we could imagine a string
of medium-scale fusion reactors instead of a few very big ones," said Alan
Sykes.

"There are still very many difficulties but perhaps in a few decades we
could have commercial fusion reactors in cities providing cheap
pollution-free power," he added.