Dear FBI: Fusion requires critical mass
The FBI runs what they call “Fusion Centers” for intelligence sharing. There’s a fascinating quote in the Washington Technology article, “Boeing to staff FBI Fusion Center:”
“As a police chief of the 19th largest city in the nation, and in possession of a top secret clearance, by law I cannot set foot unescorted in the National Counter Terrorism Center, let alone have direct access to even the most benign information,” Kerlikowske said.
So, dear FBI: Fusion requires critical mass, and it creates risks. If you re-design to eliminate all those risks, you end up without any chance of fusion.
Another little known fact about fusion: stuff goes in, stuff comes out. What you’ve got there is a black hole.
Via Global Guerrillas, “QUOTE: Security Dysfunction.” Image from Western Washington University Planetarium.
A reader kindly pointed out in private that fission requires critical mass, not fusion.
Accurate, but it blows the joke. 🙂
Sustained fusion requires the Lawson Criterion, which is a roughly similar thing to critical mass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawson_criterion