the large helical device project

ducking under the wire of public awareness (perhaps as a reflection of the extraordinary degree of attention paid to the large hadron experiment that has been put on the backburner as a result of an unfortunate incident quite early on in its life) is a project in japan with a somewhat similar moniker but whose goals are radically different.

the large helical device project has a similarly lofty and worthy goal - “to elucidate important research issues in physics and engineering for helical plasma reactors”. what does that mean to you and i?

well, nuclear fission has become fairly commonplace. here's how it works . . . however, issues related to short-term and long-term safety while apparently “negligible”, are real enough and worrisome enough to even the casual observer that it is hard to countenance the abundant volumes of energy that fission reactors generate when you consider the toxic legacy these facilities leave behind for those who will follow in the next few thousand years.

nuclear fusion - which is the essence of how a star “works” - (or as described in an entry over on the long now foundation website “translation:  this is the beginning of what you need to have your own little star right here on planet earth… without actually making our little blue marble into a star”) offers a similarly abundant source of energy, the dilemma is that while it has been achieved, in experimental circumstances, it has not yet been completely controlled. thus, the need for the work over at the lhd project.

the lhd isn’t anywhere near the scale of the hadron project, indeed it’s dimensions are positively lilliputian by comparison. the effect of the work being done there and its implications for our species are in my view similarly profound. if a safe, reproducible machine that can generate and contain nuclear fusion can be developed then the implications for a world not at all dependent on fossil fuels are enormous.
some of the images of the inner workings of this machine are decidedly gigeresque . . . here’s a link that describes in lay terms exactly what is happening in nuclear fusion . . .

there are many projects underway to develop the next stage in fuel sources. i’m hoping that this one can prove fruitful and safe enough to provide my descendants with all that they require in the way of energy to live not only on this planet but to travel and live on other planets as well.