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12/13/22: STAR BUILDERS – THE POWER OF THE SUN IN THE PALM OF MY HAND W/ LIBBE HALEVY

Posted on December 13th, 2022 by Clyde Lewis

It was announced today that US government scientists have made a breakthrough in the pursuit of limitless, zero-carbon power by achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory uses a process called undefinedinertial confinement fusionundefined that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser. Despite the immense hype surrounding the fusion proclamation, this doesn’t mean we’re anywhere close to actually achieving the “holy grail” of clean energy. Tonight on Ground Zero, Clyde Lewis talks with the host of Nuclear Hotseat, Libbe HaLevy about STAR BUILDERS - THE POWER OF THE SUN IN THE PALM OF MY HAND.

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Last night I talked about the attacks on power substations across the country and speculated about how the legacy system of getting power to our homes is under the threat of being replaced or changed in order to guarantee a zero-emissions power source. Technocrats have said to us that our greener future will have to consist of Solar, wind and nuclear power that will be clean and renewable.

My guest David Tice was reluctant to talk about this as it sounded like a conspiracy theory but joked that give it six months and maybe I will be right.

Well, it did not take six months undefined it took a day, as scientists now claim that they have found the holy grail in the quest for cleaner energy.

It was announced today that US government scientists have made a breakthrough in the pursuit of limitless, zero-carbon power by achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time.

The federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, had achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks.

The fusion reaction at the US government facility produced about 2.5 megajoules of energy, which was about 120 per cent of the 2.1 megajoules of energy in the lasers, the people with knowledge of the results said, adding that the data was still being analyzed.

To quote Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius from Spiderman it is like having the sun in the palm of your hand.

As a matter of fact, there have been many science fiction movies that have shown us a bit of predictive programming as it has been featured in movies like Iron Man to Godzilla vs. Kong and even Batman.

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, the arc reactor originally developed by Tony Stark in the Iron Man movies was also a fusion device that was refined a few times. The arc reactor is pretty fanciful but it’s interesting to note the size difference between Doc Ock’s somewhat larger invention.

While both movie creations are much smaller than current experimental fusion devices, the comparison highlights how reactor technology can differ. While most fusion devices require cooling to close to absolute zero, companies like Tokamak Energy in the UK as well as a venture between Commonwealth Fusion Systems and MIT. The Livermore labs version uses similar technology developing magnets that operate at slightly higher temperatures. As well as the energy saved from using less cooling, you can make the reactors smaller than those that require cooling to near absolute zero.

Much like other technologies that utilize radioactive material, remote operation is required in fusion research. In some areas, robotic arms are used because of extreme conditions like radiation. These are less like Doc Octopus’s robotic arms that he developed to handle the tritium, but are more like the robotic arms you would see on a car assembly line. The fusion industry is keen to utilize development in robotics, and in some instances is driving forward innovations in the robotics industry.

If you remember in the movie Batman The Dark Knight Rises.

Wayne Enterprises had a fusion reactor meant to supply Gotham City with a source of clean energy. The reactor was weaponized when Talia (Miranda Tate) and the League of Shadows planned to hold the city hostage before destroying it. Bane and the League men kidnapped Dr. Leonid Pavel to have him turn the reactor into a bomb and it became a time bomb when the core was removed from the reactor. The remote trigger to detonate the bomb was in the possession of Talia and the League men drove the bomb around the city in armored trucks until their ultimate defeat by Batman.

In Godzilla vs. Kong, scientists search for a power source by going into the Hollow Earth.

Again this has been a plot line from various science fiction movies as of late -which again can be seen as predictive programming.

These ideas though are not new as we can go as far back to an episode of the Twilight Zone where the Kanamit aliens in the episode undefinedTo Serve Manundefined where an alien race who came undefinedquite uninvitedundefined, meet with international leaders.

They begin to be persuaded of the Kanamitsundefined benevolence when their advanced technology puts an end to hunger, energy shortages, and the arms race.

Even further, we can also indicate that one of the first science fiction films ever made in1920 called Algol tragedy of Power dealt with the topic of an alien giving a an average man technology that will give unlimited power to the planet.

If you remember this film predated Hitler and his scientists that claimed they had what is known as Vril power that would eventually lead to the construction Die Glocke or Bell that used a secret technology that would power up the Wunderweapons like the so called phantom machines or saucers.

Alien and UFO authors like Steven Greer and others believe that aliens want to share with us technology that will help us — we have been encouraged to understand that the aliens are not a threat — that if they give us everything we want – that is if they feed us with information that they want us to hear then they certainly are not a threat—right?

If they were to give us technology that guarantees an unlimited resource for energy that would change the planet.

The ALGOL story about alien technology being handed over to the man from an alien – may be a metaphor that needs to be heeded now.

It is a very chilling coincidence that algorithms were named after the technology that was given from an alien to a man in old science fiction movie.

Artificial Intelligence is now taking over the world. It is not about to, it is not going to, it is not waiting to – it is doing it now. Artificial Intelligence is now morphing into a tool for augmenting reality and bots that function without human permission are now speaking to us in social media, the media parrots what it reads, and humans accept it as reality, and it may not even be reality. The algorithm is the new authority — and its pervasiveness is the new evil.

So much so that what we are seeing around us is almost surreal – it is becoming harder to define reality – it is harder to detect what is reality and what is forgery and people are allowing themselves to be misled by clever bots, and Artificial Intelligence assistance.

Little-by-little, we have been shown the future and if you pay attention, you notice that, line upon line, we have been shown through many mediums how the future may be approximated and what awaits us.

Geordie Rose is a cofounder and chief technology officer of D-Wave, the Canadian company selling machines that it claims exploit quantum mechanical effects to solve certain problems hundreds of millions times faster than traditional computers.

Rose is also CEO of Kindred Systems or Kindred AI.

He has made comments in the past about powerful sustainable energy paired with advanced computers that would be able to open up portals in order to bring aliens or even the old ones through these conduits.

In his own words, he said that his D-Wave quantum computers are able to summon a “Tsunami of Demon or aliens that are the equivalent of the “Old Ones” spoken of by horror author H.P. Lovecraft.

The concept of opening the dimensions for some Lovecraft-like creatures to come through sounds very much like conjuring.

The fact that Rose speaks as if this quantum conjuring is happening already gives a lot of credibility to what  Anthony Patch has been saying all along.

Rose gave a presentation to potential employees back in June of 2017 and explained that the next move for AI is to connect and use the resources from Quantum computing and provide a “host body” for Artificial Intelligence.

In the past, we have heard of how we can advance as a civilization if we are to capture the power of a star or sun.

Experts assert that, as a civilization grows larger and becomes more advanced, its energy demands will increase rapidly due to its population growth and the energy requirements of its various machines. With this in mind, the Kardashev scale was developed as a way of measuring a civilizationundefineds technological advancement based upon how much usable energy it has at its disposal this was originally just tied to energy available for communications but has since been expanded.

The scale was originally designed in 1964 by the Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev who was looking for signs of extraterrestrial life within cosmic signals.

The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilizationundefineds level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is able to use.

The scale is hypothetical and regards energy consumption on a cosmic scale.

The scale defined by Kardashev has been the subject of two main re-evaluations: that of Carl Sagan, who refines the types, and that of Michio Kaku, who discards the energy postulate in favor of the knowledge economy.

A Type I civilization is usually defined as one that can harness all the energy that reaches its home planet from its parent star.

The astronomer Guillermo A. Lemarchand defined Type I as a level near contemporary terrestrial civilization with an energy capability equivalent to the solar insolation on Earth.

A Type II is a civilization capable of harnessing the energy radiated by its own large star—for example, by means of the successful completion of a Dyson sphere.

A Type III is a civilization in possession of energy at the scale of its own galaxy.

Kardashev believed that a Type 4 civilization was impossible so he did not go past Type 3.

Physicist and futurist Michio Kaku suggested that, if humans increase their energy consumption at an average rate of 3 percent each year, they may attain Type I status in 100–200 years, Type II status in a few thousand years, and Type III status in 100,000 to a million years.

But he may have to amend his projections because of what has been announced form the Atomic Energy commission.

For the first time ever, US scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain.

The result of the experiment would be a massive step in a decades-long quest to unleash an infinite source of clean energy that could help end dependence on fossil fuels. Researchers for decades have attempted to recreate nuclear fusion – replicating the fusion that powers the sun.

The National Ignition Facility project creates energy from nuclear fusion by what’s known as “thermonuclear inertial fusion.” In practice, US scientists fire pellets that contain hydrogen fuel into an array of nearly 200 lasers, essentially creating a series of extremely fast, repeated explosions at the rate of 50 times per second.

The energy collected from the neutrons and alpha particles is extracted as heat, and that heat holds the key to producing energy.

Even though getting a net energy gain from nuclear fusion is a big deal, it’s happening on a much smaller scale than what’s needed to power electric grids and heat buildings.

Producing energy through nuclear fusion has been a long-held ambition for scientists and energy experts, and has prominently featured in science fiction novels and movies.

The most memorable demonstration of this type of fusion was seen in the movie Spiderman 2.

Doc Ock appeared in Spider-Man 2 back in in 2004 when he discussed his fusion device with Peter Parker. The device relied on fusing tritium nuclei together, releasing energy in the process.

Of course, the same theories existed in the film Iron Man.

The fusion reactors depicted in movies like Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man are much smaller, and seemingly less complicated, than the ones that are currently being said to create the power of the sun at Livermore.

Back then the research focused on these devices creating a self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction that is stable and emits more energy than the device consumes.

The fusion of atomic nuclei relies on a high temperature, the density of the plasma and whether you can hold the nuclei close together for long enough for them to interact. The trick is to push the positively charged nuclei close together, overcoming the repulsive forces generated by the interaction of the two positive charges. Fusion happens naturally in the Sun, at temperatures of tens of millions of degrees Celsius and high pressure.

The National Ignition Facility project creates energy from nuclear fusion by what’s known as “thermonuclear inertial fusion.” In practice, US scientists fire pellets that contain hydrogen fuel into an array of nearly 200 lasers, essentially creating a series of extremely fast, repeated explosions at the rate of 50 times per second.

The energy collected from the neutrons and alpha particles is extracted as heat, and that heat holds the key to producing energy.

Fusion energy is a method of producing electricity by smashing (or fusing) atoms together, releasing enormous gobs of energy in the process. This reaction occurs constantly on stars like the sun, which fuses 500 tons of hydrogen atoms every second. If we could replicate this reaction on Earth, we could have a source of virtually unlimited clean energy.

The big challenge of harnessing fusion energy is sustaining it long enough so that it can power electric grids and heating systems around the globe.

But that’s easier said than done. For decades, fusion scientists have attempted to create reactions by essentially shooting high-powered laser beams at hydrogen atoms. However, they’ve struggled to reach a phenomenon called “ignition,” which is a break-even point when a fusion reactor produces more energy than it consumes.

If the alleged breakthrough turns out to be true, then it would mark the first time researchers have been able to create more energy than they put in fusion reactions.

But we’re still a long, long way from being able to incorporate fusion into our energy infrastructure.

That is why it is curious why scientists are calling this discovery the Holy Grail of fusion technology. Despite the immense hype surrounding the fusion announcement, this doesn’t mean we’re anywhere close to actually achieving the “holy grail” of clean energy—and, in fact, are still very far away from making fusion a reality.

I guess the very beginning of discovery is a reason to celebrate undefined but most of what we are celebrating may not be all that it is cracked up to be.

From the amount of fissile material that can be produced by fusion, we can safely label it as a proliferation risk. It is possible to take steps to reduce these risks, but we should keep in mind that the battle to stop nuclear proliferation will not end with the doscovery of Nuclear Fusion ; rather, it will just take on a new dimension as the possibility of breeding becomes a much larger threat.

China of course is in the race for creating a reactor that captures the power of the sun as well.

Close to a year ago Chinaundefineds undefinedartificial sunundefined project sustained a nuclear fusion reaction for more than 17 minutes.

Superheated plasma reached 126 million degrees Fahrenheit—thatundefineds roughly five times hotter than the sun, which radiates a scorching 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface and about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit at its core.

Several fusion projects are in the US, United Kingdom and Europe. France is home to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, on which thirty-five countries are collaborating – including main members China, the United States, the European Union, Russia, India, Japan and South Korea.

In the US, much of the work is happening at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, in a building that spans the size of three football fields.

The big challenge of harnessing fusion energy is sustaining it long enough so that it can power electric grids and heating systems around the globe. The successful US breakthrough is a big deal, but it’s still on a far smaller scale than what’s needed to generate enough energy to run one power plant, never mind tens of thousands of power plants.

This is the first time scientists have ever successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain, instead of breaking even as past experiments have done.

While there’s many more steps until this can be commercially viable, it’s essential for scientists to show that they can create more energy than they started with. Otherwise, it doesn’t make much sense for it to be developed.

Scientists and experts now need to figure out how to produce much more energy from nuclear fusion on a much larger scale.

At the same time, they need to figure out how to eventually reduce the cost of nuclear fusion so that it can be used commercially.

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SHOW GUEST: LIBBE HALEVY

Libbe HaLevy (lee-BEE ha-LAY-vee) is producer/host of Nuclear Hotseat, a weekly podcast on nuclear issues, now in its 12th year with 600 episodes to its credit. She has just been awarded the prestigious 2022 international Nuclear Free Future Award for Education. Libbe was one mile from the 1979 nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, and wrote a book about her experience: YES I GLOW IN THE DARK: One Mile from Three Mile Island to Fukushima and Nuclear Hotseat. An award-winning playwright and librettist, Libbe’s latest play is on media manipulation at the dawn of the atomic age, ATOMIC BILL AND THE PAYMENT DUE. It is in development and looking for a theatre. Her website is: NuclearHotseat.com.