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Wednesday, December 9, 2015

THE ALCHEMY OF FUSION: GERMAN WENDELSTEIN-7 SLATED TO START THIS MONTH

Mr. R.B. shared this article, and it's one of those that's significant in so many ways it it hard to know where to begin:
German fusion machine to kick off in December
You'll note that this is a "hot fusion/containment" system, reliant upon microwaves:
The 425 tonne installation took 1.1 million construction hours spread over nine years, but it’s definitely worth it; one by one, all the individual systems have been tested and passed with flying colors – so it’s time to put this whole thing into motion.
...
The heating system includes 10 megawatts of microwaves, for up to 10 seconds, and can deliver 1 megawatt for 50 seconds during operational phase 1 (OP-1). The initial runs from December and January will only test the feasibility of the reactor type. If it is successful, then it can serve as a blueprint for a demo fusion plant – but that’s a pretty big if.
As the article notes, if this method of hot-fusion and containment is successful, then the German device effectively becomes a prototype proof-of-concept reactor for the application to energy needs. Not surprisingly, Germany is in the thick of this development, for as a major world economy, Germany's energy resources are, to say the least, lacking. It must import its petroleum and natural gas needs.
Consider the geopolitical implications of successful tests of that one fact alone: one of the world's top five economies(or top six, depending on which list one consults), would instantly have a gateway technology able to provide - at least theoretically - most of its industrial energy needs, and over time, perhaps energy even for transportation. At that juncture, it's reliance upon foreign energy sources - Russian or otherwise - is diminished over the long term.
But such a technology will not long stay confined to Germany; it will spread - like wildfire, to other nations, most quickly to Europe, which, faced as it is with a refugee crisis, with growing Muslim terrorist threats, and reliant upon Middle Eastern energy supplies, will evaporate.
The bottom high-octane-speculation line here is that virtually all the terrorist threat that the world faces from radical Islam, whether state-sponsored or not, will be subject to increasing financiall stress, because the financial basis of power that supports it will be instantly rendered obsolescent. And with this, one will also see a transformation of the financial system, for obviously, the petro-dollar financial system will evoraporate, perhaps not instantly, but quickly. One might speak of "Fusion-finance", of "fusion florins" or "deuterium-ducats" rather than petrodollars.
Germany, of course, knows all of this, and it does raise the question: if these tests are successful, what's the long-term plan for the financial world? For consider, there is the ITAR fusion project in France(little noticed and discussed), yet another multi-national effort in alternative energy, there is Dr. Andrea Rossi and his E-CAT cold fusion reactor, which recently won patents in the USA, and now, this different type of hot fusion reactor in Germany. The bottom line here, is that an epochal change in the world's energy supply, and hence, the entire financial system, is coming. Germany and Europe know this... Hopefully, those nations will show discretion on whom they allow into such projects and which nations - if they are successful - with whom they share it.

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