US Lab Debuts 'Super Laser'...Discuss

[Kayone707]

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9819/captphoto12436716255591.jpg

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – A US weapons lab on Friday pulled back the curtain on a super laser with the power to burn as hot as a star.

The National Ignition Facility's main purpose is to serve as a tool for gauging the reliability and safety of the US nuclear weapons arsenal but scientists say it could deliver breakthroughs in safe fusion power.

"We have invented the world's largest laser system," actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said during a dedication ceremony attended by thousands including state and national officials.

"We can create the stars right here on earth. And I can see already my friends in Hollywood being very upset that their stuff that they show on the big screen is obsolete. We have the real stuff right here."

NIF is touted as the world's highest-energy laser system. It is located inside the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about an hour's drive from San Francisco.

Equipment connected to a house-sized sphere can focus 192 laser beams on a small point, generating temperatures and pressures that exist at cores of stars or giant planets.

NIF will be able to create conditions and conduct experiments never before possible on Earth, according to the laboratory.

A fusion reaction triggered by the super laser hitting hydrogen atoms will produce more energy than was required to prompt "ignition," according to NIF director Edward Moses.

"This is the long-sought goal of 'energy gain' that has been the goal of fusion researchers for more than half a century," Moses said.

"NIF's success will be a scientific breakthrough of historic significance; the first demonstration of fusion ignition in a laboratory setting, duplicating on Earth the processes that power the stars."

Construction of the NIF began in 1997, funded by the US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

"NIF, a cornerstone of the National Nuclear Security Administration's effort to maintain our nuclear deterrent without nuclear testing, will play a vital role in reshaping national security in the 21st century," said NNSA administrator Tom D'Agostino.

"This one-of-a-kind facility is the only place in the world that is capable of providing some of the most critical technical means to safely maintain the viability of the nation's nuclear stockpile."

Scientists say that NIF also promises groundbreaking discoveries in planetary science and astrophysics by recreating conditions that exist in supernovas, black holes, and in the cores of giant planets.

Electricity derived from fusion reactions similar to what takes place in the sun could help sate humanity's growing appetite for green energy, according to lab officials.

"Very shortly we will engage in what many believe to be this nation's greatest challenge thus far, one that confronts not only the nation but all of mankind -- energy independence," said lab director George Miller.

The lab was founded in 1952 and describes itself as a research institution for science and technology applied to national security.

"This laser system is an incredible success not just for California, but for our country and our world," Schwarzenegger said.

"NIF has the potential to revolutionize our energy system, teaching us a new way to harness the energy of the sun to power our cars and homes."

[mtown]

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

[SKriBL*666]

Ahhh yes, a LASER beeaaammm.



http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_actors/film_images/Austin_Powers_Mike_Myers_as_Dr_Evil.jpg

[mtown]

mini me is dope

[ESKiMO2]

I'd blast down random planes... but that's just me...

[Kayone707]

mini me is dope

honestly, you are useless to this forum. 100% of your posts are just junk taking up bandwith.
see you in 2 days.
Bizzaned.

[skull-e]

Ahhh yes, a LASER beeaaammm.



http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_actors/film_images/Austin_Powers_Mike_Myers_as_Dr_Evil.jpg

beat me to it

haha

[GraffitiZoo]

thats crazy. The real question is what will they do with it? Could be very powerful tool or weapon.

[B.S. POLICE]

honestly, you are useless to this forum. 100% of your posts are just junk taking up bandwith.
see you in 2 days.
Bizzaned.


lol really?

[Devils_Advocate]

i used to have one of those laser pointers back in the day but my mom took it away from me becuase i kept shining it in my eye and now i have to wear an eyepatch on my left eye:(



ive been going as a pirate for halloween for the last 3 years...just once i want to go as a ninja or something.damn.

[Devils_Advocate]

my mom says its more economical that way.seeing as we save alot on costumes and stuff.

[Backalley Abortion Doctor]

Uh...regardless...
North Korea's sudden interest in going into nuclear war clearly brought about this unveiling. It seems like the US is saying "You have WMDs? We have a fucking planet killer."
Nevertheless "Safe fusuion power" my ass. Every time the US invents something like this, it's always used as a weapon "as a last resort" (The initial intention)
Whatever, seems like we're heading towards a mixture of Fallout and Startrek.

[B.S. POLICE]

north korea is fucking shit up the UN should just get together and collectively agree that they need to be nuked, cause clearly they dont give a fuck

[HëRbN]

Damn, yeah dude thats like some gears of war shit. and the heat and pressure of a planet or star? thats crazy. definately a weapon. but we all know shits going down hill so better have a big ass lazer

[mtownsnewaccount]

let's shoot at the french with the laser

bspolice:you sitll love me don't ya??

[CrustOner]

Uh...regardless...
North Korea's sudden interest in going into nuclear war clearly brought about this unveiling. It seems like the US is saying "You have WMDs? We have a fucking planet killer."
Nevertheless "Safe fusuion power" my ass. Every time the US invents something like this, it's always used as a weapon "as a last resort" (The initial intention)
Whatever, seems like we're heading towards a mixture of Fallout and Startrek.

Exactly. Watch it be attached to a satellite. and I laughed when I read that Arnold was in on this. We're going to attach these lasers to super soldiers named Terminators, yadda yadda, etc..

and mtown, you're unbanned in 2 fucking days. do you really need to make a new account?

[wafflecakee]

its a shame that the redistribution of wealth is such a foreign concept even in times like these.

[Proper]

i used to have one of those laser pointers back in the day but my mom took it away from me becuase i kept shining it in my eye and now i have to wear an eyepatch on my left eye:(



ive been going as a pirate for halloween for the last 3 years...just once i want to go as a ninja or something.damn.

my mom says its more economical that way.seeing as we save alot on costumes and stuff.

honestly, you are useless to this forum. 100% of your posts are just junk taking up bandwith.
see you in 2 days.
Bizzaned.

Suspend this guy, Kay.

Before I permaban him.

[Kayone707]

done

[Vagrant]

i think you guys are missing the point.
yeah sure one of the 192 may be very powerful and could have weapons applications, but that's not what they're getting at.
as the article states, they have arranged 192 lasers so they're beams all converge on a single point. The beams generate enough heat and pressure to trigger nuclear fusion, a process which generates enormous amounts of energy. Nuclear fusion is the opposite of nuclear fission, or what standard nuclear power plants harness.
The energy generated by nuclear fusion would far far exceed the energy needed to TRIGGER the process, and it would continue to generate vast amounts of energy after the process is started.
Nuclear Fusion is the answer to all energy problems. In the future everything will be run by the electricity generated by harnessing the energy of nuclear fusion.

[Mr yarbles]

Suspend this guy, Kay.

Before I permaban him.

Noooooo
:(
That guy was hilarious

[SilverEra]

Ahhh yes, a LASER beeaaammm.



http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_actors/film_images/Austin_Powers_Mike_Myers_as_Dr_Evil.jpg
LMAO

On the other note- do you think we could set up a couple around the world to save us from a bigass meteor one day? The DinoWiper.

[sketch_three]

how didnt this get robbed by asuper villain?

weres dr doom when u need him

[B.S. POLICE]

north korea, russia and china are prolly building one too

you know it homie

[(SoS)Viruz]

This is going to be funny...........Talk about star wars type shit.

[klic]

mini me is dope

that isnt mini me...

[SAID]

[QUOTE=Backalley Abortion Doctor;1399117]
North Korea's sudden interest in going into nuclear war clearly brought about this unveiling. It seems like the US is saying "You have WMDs? We have a fucking planet killer."
[QUOTE]

So fucking true

[JustChillin]

youve got to be kidding me thats crazy because i never thought an actual laser could be made. I thought that only existed in videos games and movies like toy story. What if you used a weaker version of a laser and shined it against a wall thus destroying some of the cement making an imprint (not a hole)? You could then use that shit to graph and it would be impossible to buff! They would have to bulldoze the whole wall and build a new one! Brilliant!

[THEGREATSOUTHERNTRENDKILL]

video games are for reals

[Backalley Abortion Doctor]

Tell me you're joking.

[CrustOner]

youve got to be kidding me thats crazy because i never thought an actual laser could be made. I thought that only existed in videos games and movies like toy story. What if you used a weaker version of a laser and shined it against a wall thus destroying some of the cement making an imprint (not a hole)? You could then use that shit to graph and it would be impossible to buff! They would have to bulldoze the whole wall and build a new one! Brilliant!

...You don't know how badly I want to kill you.

[T R E O]

IMO
I think this is going to cause tension between countries like Korea,China,Russia and the US.Other countries would want to get their hands on bigger,more powerful weapons like this and will probably cause controversy leading to a second Cold War.The laser is a cool idea but there are pros and cons to it.
my .02 cents

[Mr yarbles]

that's exactly waht's happening
Korea has a bomb and we have to one up them bassically
No matter how much they wana say "It's for energy"
It's also a weapon.
THey would not have said
"It can burn as bright as the sun"
If they didn't intend it to be used as a weapon

But the only problem is we really can't use it as a weapon yet
They're going to have create satalites capable of deflecting the beam so it can hit other countries and shit because all they can do with it now is shoot it in a straight line
Not to say that they havn't made a satalite relay system yet...
but it would also have to withstand a beam as powerful as the sun
and if we had those kinds of capabilities I'm pretty sure we'd be trying to get close to the sun by now.
But who knows.

[theorist]

this is north korea were talkng about we developed a nuke 50+ years ago and now our new nuclear bombs blow the explosive yield of the bombs dropped on Japan out of the water, the north koreans JUST developed a nuke that is a little less powerful or equivelent to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, on top of that they dont even know how to develope a proper missile so i dont think we need to worry about them making some laser or satellites, the real country we should be worrying about is China they're the ones were paying they keep the US economy on life support and have a military that equalls our entire population

[La Coka Nostra]

THey would not have said
"It can burn as bright as the sun"
If they didn't intend it to be used as a weapon



maybe they are thinking ahead.
maybe they intend to use it to keep the planet alive after the sun burns out.

[Kayone707]

this is north korea were talkng about we developed a nuke 50+ years ago and now our new nuclear bombs blow the explosive yield of the bombs dropped on Japan out of the water, the north koreans JUST developed a nuke that is a little less powerful or equivelent to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, on top of that they dont even know how to develope a proper missile so i dont think we need to worry about them making some laser or satellites, the real country we should be worrying about is China they're the ones were paying they keep the US economy on life support and have a military that equalls our entire population

you my friend are on point.

[Mr yarbles]

I was gonna say it's not a good idea for china to attack us
But it pretty much is
If they attack us even though we ahve the UN backing us we won't have money left to make bombs and shit cus China is bassically funding us
We're fucked.

[SKriBL*666]

Al jokes aside tho.
Fucking with fusion tho? Cant some shit like on spiderman(2) happen, like we can all die or some shit?

[B.S. POLICE]

lol yes

[SKriBL*666]

Ok but no lie, shouldnt we leave that shit in the core of a fucking star, and not tamper with it on earth?
Last time i checked, fusion pretty much is the most powerful foruce of energy in the (universe)?
I mean, didnt we barely start fucking with fission?
Arent these scientists happy enough with god damn fission?!

FISSION DAMMIT!

[B.S. POLICE]

lol and thats just what they decided to make public. that laser probably exsisted for atleast 4 years. who knows wtf their not telling us about

[snielsgreen]

i used to have one of those laser pointers back in the day but my mom took it away from me becuase i kept shining it in my eye and now i have to wear an eyepatch on my left eye:(



ive been going as a pirate for halloween for the last 3 years...just once i want to go as a ninja or something.damn.


lmao....this is funny

hopefully the mother fucking government uses it for a clean energy sorce....we all know its gonna be a weapon but maybe we can save the planet and vaporize our enemies....two birds......one big ass lazer


O_O

[sketch_three]

youve got to be kidding me thats crazy because i never thought an actual laser could be made. I thought that only existed in videos games and movies like toy story. What if you used a weaker version of a laser and shined it against a wall thus destroying some of the cement making an imprint (not a hole)? You could then use that shit to graph and it would be impossible to buff! They would have to bulldoze the whole wall and build a new one! Brilliant!
they have laazers in ur cd player and xbox,uv never hered of lazer eye sugary?

[B.S. POLICE]

you have to be high to think that he was serious

[sketch_three]

well i am rrealy stoned

[shalf]

Ah well in that case carry on sir

[sketch_three]

fear not my goodman i shall

[El Chupacabre]

north korea, russia and china are prolly building one too


I'm sure our governments already sold them theirs.

[stevefrench]

I'm sure our governments already sold them theirs.

or are at least trying to! :)


who the fuck wants world peace... you cant make money off that

[SAID]

well



fucking



said

[El Chupacabre]

or are at least trying to! :)


who the fuck wants world peace... you cant make money off that

I'm sure everyone will give a fuck about money when we're all fucking ourselves up with lazers. ;)

[FlippingChickens]

my mom says its more economical that way.seeing as we save alot on costumes and stuff.

ur atempt at trying to be funny is pathetic stop trying so hard

and that lazer looks nuts that shit is gonna be used like in 10 years then the fucker who invented it is going to sell it to other countrys then its gonna be laser wars for a good minute then the whole world is proly going to blow the fuck up

[stevefrench]

I'm sure everyone will give a fuck about money when we're all fucking ourselves up with lazers. ;)


people will ALWAYS care about money.


"money makes the world go round"

[jaketherake94]

if its a super laser that can burn as hot as a star i seriously doubt that they would use it to help the environment

[dior]

i saw this shit on the history channel there only using it for deffense