Every week gives each of us new experiences and exposure which create the opportunity to learn, accept and adapt. I was pleased to join several friends at the closing dinner for a project. The restaurant prides itself on its steaks – cooked in an 1800 degree oven and served on a 500 degree plate. Our very well-trained wait person strongly suggested that we not be tempted to lick the plate. It’s too hot.
I still enjoy spending time with Hank and, as we approach his second birthday, he is able to talk to me. Most weekends, we make waffles on Saturday or Sunday together. If you ask Hank why we don’t touch the waffle machine, he will clearly tell you in a very low and deep voice (probably because that is how he hears it from his parents and grandparents), “It’s too hot.” We have the same experience with the backyard marshmallow fire and the fire at the cabin.
I was fascinated reading this week about “fusion.” I don’t want to burst the bubble of the high heat steak house, but the reactor that is in testing at Tri Alpha today heats the plasma that supports the reaction to 10 million degrees Celsius. Now that is the ultimate of “it’s too hot.” Fusion technology has long been discussed as the solution to most of the planet’s power needs. It is clean, renewable, and does not create a toxic waste that has a very long half life. And the reaction stops when it loses heat. The article I read is in Time Magazine this week and reviews fusion – the merging of atomic nuclei – discussing the various attempts to find a way to replicate what happens each day on our Sun in a controlled environment. While most of the test facilities were operating with a magnetic ring to contain the super hot plasma, those innovative folks at Tri Alpha have apparently found a way to shoot plasma smoke rings at each other at a speed to force them together and spin in a way that keeps them stable. The process continually fires hydrogen atoms to increase the heat, stabilize the cloud, and enhance the power produced. Tri Alpha has created an elegant piece of “plasma-physics bootstrappery.” The magnetic field generated by the cloud of plasma uses a phenomenon called a field reversed configuration, or FRC. Einstein would be proud. (Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into smaller parts which results in enormous energy and radiation.)
Experts disagree with when it will happen but no longer with IF it will happen. And when it is commercially feasible, it may well turn out to belong to that category of human achievement – like powered flight, moon landings, the Internet – that appeared impossible right up until someone did it. This will be “totally hot” and likely will result in global cooling as we cease to burn fossil fuels on this planet.
“Culture drives great results.” – Jack Welc
“We should seek the greatest value of our action.” – Stephen Hawking