GaSb Laser?

[mixedgas]

Once upon a future time, someone aims a laser tweeked to precisely the right wavelength into a cloud of expensive and quite toxic metal vapor. This vapor is suspended between two charged plates... A few highly prized atoms in that vapor have a different neutron count, respond to a bit different wavelength then the rest, are slightly ionized, and head toward the plates...

Still confused?

You have a pile of laser parts that should, um,, how shall I say this.... NOT be exported or sold....

Steve

[GooeyGus]

Mmmmmmmmmmmm..... Extra neutrons.



I think it's time to build that laser and buy yourself a delorean.

[Stoney3K]

I think it's time to build that laser and buy yourself a delorean.

I doubt we'll be able to get 1,21 GW of fusion out of these disks anytime soon. As for nuclear fusion goes, my money is on Polywell right now, not on huge installations that require megajoule lasers or superconducting magnets.

As far as ionised metal vapors go, I prefer the type used in stage lighting that throws a nice 6500K white on the gobo wheels.

[ElektroFreak]

Mmmmmmmmmmmm..... Extra neutrons.



I think it's time to build that laser and buy yourself a delorean.

But future deloreans come with Mr. Fusion as standard.. no laser needed.

[Laser Ben]

Once upon a future time, someone aims a laser tweeked to precisely the right wavelength into a cloud of expensive and quite toxic metal vapor. This vapor is suspended between two charged plates... A few highly prized atoms in that vapor have a different neutron count, respond to a bit different wavelength then the rest, are slightly ionized, and head toward the plates...

Still confused?

You have a pile of laser parts that should, um,, how shall I say this.... NOT be exported or sold....

Steve

OHHHHH ohhh ohhhh! Snap...

[buffo]

No need to be all "cloak and dagger" about it, Steve. Laser-enrichment of Uranium (and other heavy elements) is a well-documented process. You can read about it on Wikipedia, for crying out loud.

I'm not even certain that exporting the parts would be a problem. After all, argon ion lasers were also used for enrichment, yet there's no restriction on exporting those, much less just the optics.

What he's got there is an interesting collection of optics that could be used for a number of purposes, only one of which includes enrichment. And even if it falls under controlled "dual-use technology" regulations (which is not a given), it just means that he has to file another form with US customs and he's in the clear. (And if it is dual-use technology, then how in the hell did he get his hands on it in the first place?)

On a more practical level, it's not like someone is going to buy these optics and start building their own enrichment factory. If they have the means to buy the rest of the equipment needed, finding the optics (or having them custom-made, even) is *not* going to be a challenge.

Adam

[Laserman532]

go to post #9

[mixedgas]

[QUOTE=buffo;139121]No need to be all "cloak and dagger" about it, Steve. Laser-enrichment of Uranium (and other heavy elements) is a well-documented process. You can read about it on Wikipedia, for crying out loud.

I'm not even certain that exporting the parts would be a problem. After all, argon ion lasers were also used for enrichment, yet there's no restriction on exporting those, much less just the optics.

Yes there is, Go read ITAR, ARGONs in the 30 watt class cannot be exported without license...

Steve

[buffo]

Exactly what constitutes a "license" then? Because I've surely seen pictures of I-400's in Europe before. That would qualify as a 30 watt argon... How did they get there?

Don't get me wrong, I agree that there are certainly secrets that still need to be kept. But you can go overboard on the secrecy too. Trust me - 90% of what I learned in nuclear power school was available at any decent university that offered a nuclear engineering degree - no need for it to be classified at all.

And excessive secrecy causes real harm, believe me. For example - The average Joe knows nothing of nuclear power, which is why everyone is so damned afraid of it. If more people understood it, we might not be fighting such an uphill battle to build new plants in this country.

The really stupid part is that things stay classified long after the secret is out in the open. A good example is Tom Clancy's book "The Hunt for Red October". In it, he gives an accurate 1-paragraph description of an up-power transient aboard a russian nuke boat. That one paragraph so succinct yet so easy to understand that I nearly fell out of my chair when I first read it. Here was 2 full months of reactor principles class distilled to a few sentences! (And remember, it was published over 25 years ago...)

Heck, we should probably have Clancy teaching the new nucs...

Adam

[Stoney3K]

No need to be all "cloak and dagger" about it, Steve. Laser-enrichment of Uranium (and other heavy elements) is a well-documented process. You can read about it on Wikipedia, for crying out loud.

I recall someone once said: Building a bomb is quite easy. Getting the right bits to do it, that's the challenge. (Especially the very heavy, radioactive bit in the middle!)

There's no reason to blanket ban nuclear 'knowledge' for the sake of proliferation or some other dud reason, after all, most of it is just a direct result of the laws of physics. And they don't change in a different political climate, do they?

The same idea would be to ban either fertilizer or diesel fuel for export, because they could _possibly_ be used to build a high explosive, let alone try to get your hands on the instructions to construct something like that! Secrecy is not a solution, making sure the components don't fall into the wrong hands, is.