Friday, May 22, 2009

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Man-made star to unlock cosmic secrets

Artist's impression of laser fusion  (Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Department of Energy)
A pea-sized spherical capsule is filled with fusion fuel
This comprises a 150-microgram mix of deuterium and tritium
The NIF laser set-up pulses for 20 billionths of a second
For that time, it generates about 500 trillion watts
That's equivalent to five million million 100-watt light bulbs
All the laser power is focused on to the capsule's surface
The fuel is compressed to a density 100 times that of lead
It is heated to more than 100 million degrees Celsius
Under these extreme conditions, fusion is initiated
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