SHRIMP INSPIRES NUCLEAR FUTURE A team of scientists at the Illumic Shores Technological Institute (ISTI) have today announced that they have taken a step towards a unique method designed to achieve nuclear fusion. It is hoped that by achieving nuclear fusion low cost, clean energy could be produced with very little waste produced. Until now the Altonan Electrical Syndicate (AES) has lead the way in Altona in the race for nuclear fusion however the ISTI team believe they may soon close the gap and with a far less technologically demanding method.
Professor Klaus Ragner has been leading a team that today demonstrated a key idea they believe is an important first step, their method lacks the lasers and magnets used in other ongoing projects. The Professor explained how it was the pistol shrimp that gave them the idea. "The pistol shrimp has amazingly strong claws, it is estimated that a single strike from the animal creates a temperature so high it vapourises water and creates pressure bubbles where the water literally disappears. As the shockwaves from the strike takes place it creates a huge ripple where these voids hit each other creating incredible pressure. If we could harness a similar effect we could force the process of fusion."
In front of a panel of the nations leading experts on nuclear energy the ISTI team demonstrated their technique. A target containing a small amount of fuel is dropped into a chamber which contains a liquid lithium network. A railgun design fires a mircopellet at close to 19 times the speed of sound into the target which then explodes creating a huge shockwave similar to that of the pistol shrimp strike. The pressure waves it creates have been recorded travelling at around Mach 204 making them for a brief moment the fastest object on Mundus. This reaction is then harnessed by a heat exchanger which transfers the heat to water, generating steam that turns a turbine and produces electricity in the final commercial reactor design. Each target struck would produce an estimated 6.2 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power an average home for two years. Professor Ragner said, "If our estimates are correct then we could produce electricity at US$50/MWh which is currently the same price it costs to produce solar or wind power. This is obviously a very early-stage demonstration, and as such only about 50 such neutrons were produced but this matching the predicted yield. I believe we've got to the point of achieving fusion in record time and we've spent less than $59 million to get there, where the most conservative budget for the other projects sits at around $20 billion."
King Rutger has praised the project stating that he is "Proud of the scientists and technicians who are working hard to make us a pioneer in a field that is vital for mankind if we are to cut carbon creation to the bone."