FUSION STAR TREK
To Boldly Go for Ignition (Tenatively)
“Fusion Star Trek — To Boldly Go for Ignition (Tentatively)”
A Play in Four Acts (if you can call it acting) and used to engender consensus at Snowmass, July 1999 (Well, perhaps not…..)
Narrator
Fusion, the final frontier! These are the voyages of the starship Compromise. Its five-year mission, to seek out new worlds and civilizations – especially those strange galaxies at the extremes of the universe, in the forlorn attempt to find someone that has discovered how to make fusion actually work. To boldly go in fusion where no plasma physicist has boldly gone before, er ….. tentatively?
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SCENE 1: StarFleet Federation Headquarters StarDate: 2999
Scene 1. StarFleet Federation Headquarters
[Dramatis personae Scene 1: Narrator, Anne Davies, Ronald Blanken, Mike Roberts , two OFES staff members, Captain James T. Goldston] Narrator The year is Stardate 2999. Intergalactic space travel via warp-drive has now been in use for the past 500 years. Matter transfer via transporters is routine. And fusion is now only 30 years away! But, to be fair, the Federation fusion program has been dealing with a much more important problem than fusion energy for the past 1000 years, – How to keep working secretly on ITER without being found out by Congress! So, the year is 2999. Let me take you now to the StarFleet Fusion Command Headquarters. Now, because of the threat from attack from alien civilizations, the Federation Headquarters is housed in a dark, gloomy, labyrinthine systems of underground tunnels that go on forever and where daylight has never penetrated. Voice Narrator You must mean DOE Germantown! Precisely! Anyway, in the center of this underground netherworld, the head of StarFleet’s Fusion Program, Admiral Anne Davies, is chairing her Monday morning staff meeting…… (All except Davies and Narrator are asleep, snoring loudly) Davies Okay you lot, wake up, wake up! (All wake up with a start), OFES staff 1 What? What? Time to go home already? I’ve only just dropped off!
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Davies
Come on you lot. Wake up! It’s time to go through the proposals for this year’s ICC competition.
OFES staff 1 ICC? Davies Yes – “Innovative Confinement Concepts”. We have reviewed all the proposals and now we have to decide who has won. OFES staff 2 But doesn’t Princeton always win? Davies Yes, yes of course they always win. But they always submit a blank form and we have to fill it in for them, (Turns to Blanken), Okay Ron Blanken, which Princeton proposal, -- whoops! I mean, which fusion community proposal has won this year? Blanken (Looks apprehensive) Well Admiral Davies….. I’m afraid the winners aren’t from Princeton this year Davies Blanken What? Yes, we’ve had two real proposals this year that look like they may actually work! Davies Blanken What! Oh, very well, let’s hear them The first one is from Charlie Baker’s group at UCSD, It’s a cloaking device. Roberts Blanken A cloaking device? Yes, it would enable us to keep working on ITER without being detected by Congress!
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Davies Blanken
(Face lights up) Aha! I like it. And the second proposal? The second proposal is from MIT. It’s a time machine.
OFES staff 1 A time machine? Roberts Blanken Davies Blanken What’s a time machine got to do with fusion? We’ll first of all, its much easier to build than a fusion reactor. Yes, everyone knows that. And so? Well according to the proposal, MIT’s historical research has shown that in the year 1999, fusion was only 50 years away. Davies Blanken Yes, and so? And they discovered that back in 1980, fusion was only 30 years away. Davies Blanken Yes, yes and so? And in 1960, fusion was only 15 years away. So MIT has realized if they plotted this data and backwards-extrapolated it, we must have had fusion in the year 1952! They’re proposing to use the time machine to go back to 1952 to find it! (pause) (looks to Marshall R in the audience.) And Marshall can confirm that it was true! Davies Blanken Wonderful! How much is the time machine? (Scanning proposal) Er….. twenty-three-dollars and fifteen cents
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OFES staff 2 (Looks puzzled) That’s very cheap for a time machine. Blanken (Still reading proposal). Yes, but they’re having the Italians build it for them. That’s why its so cheap. It would be 3-trillion-dollars under DOE costing rules Davies Well that’s settled then. We’ll fund both the cloaking device and the time machine. OFES staff 2 But, of course, we’ll build them both at Princeton? Davies Of course!
OFES staff 1 (Dramatically) Admiral Davies! Captain James T. Goldston is without. Davies Without what?
OFES staff 1 No, I mean he is outside. You asked him to report to StarFleet HQ, remember? Davies (Furrows brow) Yes, so I did. And on a very important mission indeed. Have him come in. Narrator And so, into this saga strides our fearless, gallant, Starfleet captain, Captain James T. Goldston of the Starship Compromise(Goldston strides in). Davies Ah, Captain Goldston. There you are. (looks closely at Goldston) Tell me, why do you look so sad?
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Goldston
It’s terrible! I’ve just found out that my wife has run off with a tractor salesman.
OFES staff 2 A tractor salesman? How do you know he sells tractors? Goldston Because she sent me (slowly) a John… Deere ….Letter! (Pause for audience groans) Davies Goldston Captain Goldston where is you assistant Dale Meade? I’m afraid he’s under arrest for arson. He was caught trying to start a fire! He’s been banished to MIT where he is working as Bruno Coppi's helper on the IGNORATOR project. Davies Now Captain Goldston – I have a very distasteful mission for you to perform Goldston (grimaces) You mean — you want Princeton to take over the research in Magnetized Target Fusion? Davies No, even worse than that! (Then, behind her hand) [ Although you can do that too if you want to!] No, I have the most important task you will ever have to perform…… (pauses and sighs) . I need you to undertake a task so dangerous, so hazardous, so perilous, that even your very budget may be in jeopardy Goldston Davies Gosh! What do I have to do? I need you to take the Starship Compromise and make an alliance with the Klingon Empire!
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DARTH CAMBELL
Goldston
(Recoils theatrically) Make an alliance with the Klingon Empire! Not the Inertial Fusion Energy Program and its darstardly leader, Darth Campbell?
Davies All Narrator
Yes! The IFE Program and Darth Campbell (All gasp, looked shocked) The IFE program! Darth Campbell! At this terrible news, Captain Goldston tore his hair…. Then he stamped on his rabbit
Goldston
Very well, If I must then…. (pauses)…….No wait! I have a solution to our predicament. Something that will make it unnecessary to form an alliance with the IFE Klingons!
Davies
(Face lights up) You have? You have? What can it possibly be? (All look ecstatic)
Goldston
(dramatically, building to a crescendo) Yes! I have some very exciting news for you all! At Princeton we’ve discovered a new fusion concept. A brand new initiative! Something that will solve all the problems that the tokamak has brought upon us. Something that will inject new lifeblood into the fusion program. Something that will make electricity too cheap to meter!
Davies
Wonderful! Wonderful! What is it? (Looks stern, wags finger) It had better not be a stellarator!
Goldston
Don’t worry Admiral Davies – All you have to do is give Princeton a large funding increase to build a large WASTE.
Davies
( looks puzzled) A WASTE?
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Goldston Davies Goldston Davies Goldston
Yes a WASTE, a wall stabilized toroidal experiment (still looking puzzled) Ah yes! Based on what concept? The quasi spherical tandem mirror machine I thought you were considering a quasi spherical RFP We were and we reviewed some early experiments. But when we compared some of the later beta data from Zeta with the beta data from eta-beta, Prager convinced us that the experiment was best carried out at University of Wisconsin
Davies
(thinks then shakes her head) No -- my mind is made up. You will take the Starship Compromise to Livermore and you will make an alliance with the Klingon IFE Empire.
Goldston
Livermore? Great! (smiles at audience) We had enough gags at Princeton’s expense. Now it’s time to beat up on Livermore!
OFES staff 2 There’s still a problem Admiral Davies. Even if we make this alliance, it’s not clear that either MFE or IFE will actually work. We need a fusion concept that will actually work Davies Hmm – you’re right (thinks for a moment). I know! Captain Goldston – on your way to Livermore, I want you to stop off in Victorian London and consult with Sherlock Holmes, the great detective. He knows the answer to everything. Ask him about fusion and how to make it work. OFE staff 1 Sherlock Holmes? But this is the year 2999 and he lived in 1899.
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Davies
No problem. We’ll use MIT’s ICC proposal for the time machine. Then you can go back in time and visit Sherlock Holmes on the way to Livermore ( conspiratorial aside to Goldston) And of course, you can build the time machine at Princeton!
Goldston
(plaintively) Hey! I thought we were going to pick on Livermore from now on!
Blanken
(scrutinizing time machine proposal). But there’s a problem, Admiral Davies. According to the MIT proposal, the time machine appears to get its power from a nuclear weapon. It needs a hydrogen bomb as its energy source.
Davies
A hydrogen bomb? (looks dismayed) But the fusion program is an unclassified program. And we don’t have security clearances. So where can we get the plans for a nuclear weapon without security clearances? (Pauses and thinks. All OFES look puzzled and appear to be thinking) Ah I know! All you have to do is open up the Los Alamos home page and click on “top secrets” And so Captain Goldston, I need you to (dramatically, pauses for effect) …. to boldly go where no man has gone before!
Roberts Davies Roberts Davies Roberts
(interrupts) Excuse me , you can’t say that Ah, Mike Roberts, our departmental lawyer. What’s the problem? You can’t say “To Boldly Go”. Why not? It’s a split infinitive. You must say “To go Boldly”
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Davies
Oh dear! (pauses and thinks) To go boldly? To boldly go? To go boldly? To boldly go?….hmmm….I can’t decide which one to use. (turns to others) So loyal OFES staff -- what do we always do in the office when we can’t decide what to do? (All smile and nod knowingly)
Davies *
Right! We’ll ask John Sheffield to commission a FESAC panel! * * * *
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SCENE 2: 221B Baker Street (Sherlock Holmes' Flat)
Scene 2 221B Baker Street – Sherlock Holmes’ Flat
[Dramatis personae Scene 2: Narrator, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, housekeeper, Captain James T. Goldston] Narrator Having managed to easily procure the design of the W-88 warhead from Los Alamos, Princeton get the job (of course) of building the time machine and were able to transport the Starship Compromise back to the past. And so, we find ourselves in Victorian London in 1899. Fusion is just 53 years away (1952 remember!). The scene is 221B Baker St and we find the great detective, Sherlock Holmes, peering through the window into the street below. His companion, Dr Watson, is hard at work on the Times crossword puzzle. Holmes Watson! I say Watson, a starship from the future has just landed in the street! Watson (irritably) Don’t bother me now Holmes, I’m trying to do this damned crossword puzzle. Holmes A crossword puzzle? It’s elementary my dear Watson. It’s all elementary. Watson Holmes Elementary? The Times crossword? How can you say that? The answers to all crossword puzzles are elementary my dear Watson. I’ll show you. Just give me the clues.
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Watson
Very well, Holmes. Try this one, Fifteen Down “The school you attend from grades one through seven, before going to junior high” Ten letters
Holmes Watson
Elementary, my dear Watson! Elementary! Of course! …..Okay, try this one. Ten across “A medical term pertaining to the digestive system and gut.” Ten letters.
Holmes Watson
Alimentary, my dear Watson! Alimentary! Of Course! Right! Try this one, twenty-one down “A type of citrus tree bearing bitter yellow fruit” Three words.
Holmes
A lemon tree, my dear Watson! (High pitched Cockney accent) Excuse me Mr ‘Olmes, a Captain James T Goldston from the Starship Compromise is without.
Housekeeper
Holmes
Without what, Mrs Hudson? No I mean he’s here to consult with you. I’ll show him in.
Housekeeper Narrator
And so, in strode our gallant Captain Goldston. He found Sherlock Holmes sitting in the fireplace.
Goldston
I see you’re sitting in the fireplace. No wonder you are known as the grate detective (pause for groans) I am from the future from the year 2999
Holmes
Aha! And have you discovered the secret of fusion?
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Goldston
No. But we’re only 30 years away. And now, Mr Holmes, we need your help. We need to know how to save the fusion program
Holmes
Save the fusion program? Captain Goldston, the answer is elementary. You must convert the fusion program from an energy program to an art program
Goldston Holmes Goldston Holmes Watson Goldston
Art program? You mean a science program! No, I mean an art program (Suspiciously) What kind of art program? Still life! My God Holmes! You mean there’s still life in the fusion program? An art program eh? (pauses and considers, then brightens) All right then. As long as Princeton gets to paint all the pictures!
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SCENE 3: The Bridge of the Starship COMPROMISE
Scene 3
The Bridge of the Starship Compromise
[Dramatis personae Scene 3: Narrator, Goldston, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Lt. Ahura] Narrator Aboard the bridge of the Starship Compromise on route to the FESAC Meeting at Livermore. Stardate 2999.10. Captain Goldston is writing in his log. McCoy Narrator Writing in his log? Why isn’t he writing in his cabin? He is. It’s a log cabin. Before setting out, the crew had breakfasted on a diet of radishes, curry, chili and baked beans, and so the Starship Compromise set sail with a fair wind behind it. Suddenly the communications Officer, the beautiful Lieutenant Ahura, receives a message. Ahura Captain Goldston! We’ve received a sub-space message from General Atomics down in San Diego. They have wonderful news! Goldston Ahura McCoy Ahura Read it out to us General Atomics have found a cure for tokamak disruptions. They’ve cured tokamak disruptions? Wonderful! How? (reading message) They’ve discovered they can stiffen the magnetic field lines in DIII-D Goldston Ahura Stiffen the field lines? How? By injecting pellets
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McCoy Ahura
Pellets of what? Viagra! (pause for groans)
Spock Ahura
Viagra! Wonderful! So the tokamak program has been saved? Unfortunately not. It says here that thieves have stolen their whole supply of Viagra.
Spock Ahura
What? Their viagra stolen? Yes -- The San Diego police are looking for a gang of hardened criminals (pause for groans)
Ahura
Yes! Not only that. All of GA’s supplies of castor oil and X-Lax have been stolen too.
McCoy Ahura
No! Yes -- The San Diego police are also looking for a gang of criminals on the run.
Narrator
Suddenly, in rushed Scotty, the Engineering Officer. He was in charge of the Hoffman ion thrusters based on the field-reversedconfiguration. As we all know, the FRC makes an ideal propulsion system as the system is so leaky. The problem is that the plasma spews out equally in all directions. program never goes anywhere. Consequently, the FRC
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Scotty
(in an anguished Scottish accent) Captain, Captain - the FRC reactor is going to blow any minute! I cannae hold her much longer.
Goldston
Don’t worry Scotty. It won’t blow. The FRC is a very attractive reactor.
Narrator McCoy
Suddenly Doctor McCoy spots something on the scanner. Captain! The sensors have picked a very small, compact object. It’s very hot and intensely radioactive. Is it a neutron star?
Goldston Spock
Spock -- what is it? Hot and intensely radioactive? It must be the center post from one of Martin Peng’s spherical tori reactors!
Goldston
Al right! All right! I’ve had enough of this. That’s enough jokes at Princeton’s expense! We’ve been doing this bloody skit for 20 minutes now and we still haven’t had a dig at Livermore. You know – that California lab that has achieved inertial confinement in both its laser fusion program and its mirror program
Narrator
Okay, okay. Very well…… Hey, I know! Lieutenant Ahura here can tell us all about Livermore. She’s married to someone from Livermore.
McCoy Ahura
So you’re husband is a Livermoron eh? Good marriage is it? Well yes, but I don’t know what he does there. He won’t tell me since I don’t have a Q-clearance and sigma levels 1,2,11, and 69.
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Goldston
I know just how you feel. When I tell Livermore:-- “I’ll show you my physics if you show me yours”, they always say the same thing – No Q, no sigma, no need-to-know -- no secrets!
Narrator
And so Captain Goldston had to get all his secrets from Los Alamos.
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SCENE 4: 243,000,000th FESAC Meeting (at Livermore)
Scene 4
The 243,000,000th FESAC Meeting at Livermore
[Dramatis personae Scene 4: Narrator, John Sheffield, a Witch from the Planet Zod, Dick Siemon, MFE Theory Program Leader, James T. Goldston, Mike Campbell]
Narrator
John Sheffield convenes the 243,000,000th FESAC meeting at LLNL which, as everyone knows, stands for “Lasers, Lasers and Nothing but Lasers”. FESAC’s main job is to assess the difference between “To Boldly Go” and “To Go Boldly”, a task that should take at least several months of meetings. Of course, it won’t actually get to decide anything, rather it will just list the opportunities that can be had with split infinitives. The FESAC Panel have just toured the National Ignition Facility and are impressed that ignition on NIF is now just thirty years away! Present at the Livermore FESAC meeting are the normal fusion community rabble and a strange, intergalactic traveler -- a witch from the planet Zod, and she can foretell the future. John Sheffield opens the meeting with his impeccable British accent (Don Batchelor is playing this part!)..
Sheffield
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the two-hundred-and-fortythree-millionth meeting of FESAC. I would like to say it gives me great pleasure . . . (pauses and smiles) . . . and it always has! (pause) And no, I don’t know where all the Viagra tablets from GA have gone. (Looks stern) I must say that by losing all those Viagra tablets, GA have really let the fusion program down!
Narrator
John Sheffield turns to the Witch from the Planet Zod.
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Witch Sheffield
(very deliberately) Yes! I can! I understand you can foretell the future?
(pause as Sheffield – and audience -- consider this rather sophisticated joke) Witch The quasi antisymmetric toroidal helical omnigenous ITER stellarator Sheffield What concept should Princeton abandon? …. (thinks for a second)… Wait a minute. Hold on. This foretelling the future is all very well but it makes it very hard for the audience to understand. (points to audience) They’re not laughing. Witch Sheffield But they didn’t laugh at the previous part of the script either! True. But please, from now on, answer the question after I’ve asked it. Now, you just said an ITER stellarator. An ITER stellerator eh? It sounds like the title of a Stephen King novel! (pause) Now here’s a question of the future. How long will it be before we have fusion. Witch Sheffield Witch Sheffield Witch Thirty years From now? From whenever you like. It will always be thirty years. Oh dear. Then you must tell us -- What is the secret of fusion? The secret of fusion is to sustain your research budgets while fusion remains 30 years away!
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Sheffield
Right. Next on the agenda is Dick Siemon.. Dr Siemon -- I understand you have brought a working version of your high-yield MTF target to show us
(Siemon drags in the large traffic cone with W88 marked on it) Siemon Yes. Guranteed to work! It’s rather high yield and there is a standoff problem. But the rep rate is only once every 30 minutes! Sheffield Okay, that’s enough real fusion. It’s now time to hear from the IFE Theory Program. who are capable of predicting what’s going to happen before the experiment is completed. And also the MFE Theory Program who can’t predict what happened in an experiment even after it has been performed (Turns to MFE Theory Program Leader) And so tell us MFE Theory Program – have you discovered anything new in theory Theory Yes we have made progress of galactic importance in several critical areas. Sheffield Theory Can you give us any examples Certainly Our new multidimensional finite element code, MH12D, has shown that within 2% a round plasma is circular (pause) Another spectacular contribution in ICF has shown that in 85% of the LASTHOPE mega simulation runs, the pellet implodes inwards (pause)
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Also, in our new full wave, 3-D, RF heating code, ZAPEM, we have been able to achieve a maximum efficiency of 87% in power absorption by an adjacent antenna (pause) Most amazingly we have developed a 3-D, multifluid, gyrokinetic, MHD, Fokker-Planck code, including a Wall Street analysis package,. This code, NIMBICILE has conclusively demonstrated in over 50% of the runs, - all right 3 out of 5 runs,- that microinstability-driven turbulence causes energy to be transported in the outward direction. (pause) Finally, our new RF heating code, IHEAT, has shown that ICH in the presence of ITG contributes to the formation of ITB’s even in the absence if IBW. I be damned if I know what that means. Sheffield Okay, Okay. That’s enough theory for this millennium. (turns to Goldston) Now, Captain Goldston. What would you like to hear next on the agenda? Goldston I’d like to hear more jokes at the expense of IFE -- there’s been enough digs at MFE in this skit. It’s IFE’s turn now. Sheffield I agree. We’ll let the leader of the Klingons -- Darth Campbell – tell us about inertial confusion. …. Dr Campbell?…..Er Dr Campbell? Are you ther (Campbell wanders in after a minute or two oblivious to the situation and carrying on an animated conversion on his cell phone) Campbell Ah, the FESAC meeting! Was that today? Right, I’d like to explain to Captain Gladstone here about the new national collaborative fusion program. Here’s how it works Captain Gudstein. You give
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me half the MFE budget and I’ll make Steve Bodner an offer he can’t refuse! (pauses) See, Captain Goldbucket – it’s already worked! He’s gone. Now where’s my half of the budget? Goldstein Campbell (grimly) Just tell us how ICF works. Well ICF is quite simple. My mother explained it all to me. You take a B-B pellet and a beer can (holds up a golf ball and the beer can) Everyone Campbell Everyone Campbell Yes? And you put the B-B at the center at the center of a beer can. Yes? And then you take more power than is generated in the whole of the United States. Everyone Campbell Everyone Campbell Everyone Campbell Everyone Yes? And you stuff all the power into the beer can Yes? And then you cover your ears and run Yes, yes? And? And? And that’s it. That’s it?
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Campbell
Yes. Wonderful isn’t it! (Then peers suspiciously at the golf ball) Wait a minute! Look at the dimples on this capsule! Look at the terrible surface finish! It’s clearly one of Ken Schultz’s targets!
Sheffield
And now Darth Campbell, it seems that FESAC will be unable to decide between “To Boldly Go” and “To Go Boldly” -- other than to point out the wonderful opportunities, of course!. So, do you have any suggestions?
Campbell Sheffield Campbell
Of course. The IFE program has all the answers! Ah-ha! So tell us I have the very process for you. A process that will enable you to all come to consensus on this issue.
Goldston
A process to come to consensus on “To Boldly Go”? Surely you can’t mean …..
Campbell
Yes! You need to convene….. (pause) ….a Snowmass meeting!
All (together) A Snowmass meeting! Oh no! Anything but that! ( curtain – and rotten fruit )
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