NIF: Power the Future

1. Why is it important? How does it work? The effects The world is in desperate need for a clean and powerful energy solution. Some may suggest the use of alternative power sources such as fuels, solar, or wind, but in reality they just are too costly and do not produce enough power to meet today’s energy needs. The next age of energy technology is going to be based on the principles that govern individual atoms. Through fusion, we can create energy millions of times more powerful than what we input. Because fusion requires such small amounts of fuel for such large amounts of energy, the applications for fusion energy are endless. Imagine a world where everything from cars to buildings contains some sort of fusion reactor, where a single cup of water has the required fuels to have it run properly Once NIF has successfully created a sustainable fusion reaction through means of perfecting the focus of the lasers, the power of the lasers, and the amount and balance of fuel, they device could be simplified just as computers have [5]. Early computers have shrunk from the size of a room to being able to fit in your pocket. The 11 meter high building sized reactor could prospectively eventually be engineered to fit into homes/corporations and eventually machines such as vehicles. An entire range of Earth’s energy problems can be fitted to use fusion as a cheaper and more sustainable method to go about powering them. Conclusion The necessity of fusion reactors hasn’t reached its climax yet; however, the most efficient way to solving a problem is to fix it before it becomes a world-shattering issue. Therefore, I would like to notify the public to this issue before it reaches a disaster. For those who worry that the world is reaching its energy crisis, carbon apocalypse, and gasoline warfare epitome, fusion reactors such as LIFE will be the savior, all created and researched via NIF. NIF: Power the Future Spherical in shape, NIF has exactly 192 lasers mounted along the outside, with the center allocated to the fuel to the fusion reaction, in this case deuterium and tritium, two isotopes of hydrogen found in water. The lasers all focus onto the fuel and an abundance of energy heats up the fuel and becomes plasma. The most recent tests of the laser have confirmed the laser’s power, as it fired the first 1 megajoule shot, therefore creating the highest concentrated energy on the planet. This energy is used to raise the temperature of the fuel to over 100,000,000 Co creating the same reaction found in our own sun. After having this “star on earth” one can easily harness the energy as we do coal, oil, or nuclear in a power plant. In theory, a 1000 megawatt fusion reactor could operate off of just over a metric ton of lithium a year. The lithium, once bombarded with neutrons, creates the isotopes necessary to start the reaction. After the reaction is started, the only maintenance necessary would be to replace the exhausted fuel, and replace the radioactive shielding, which is used to protect the reaction from expanding and to protect from the particles that are expelled by the reaction.