Posted on 11/12/2011 4:10:15 AM PST by Wonder Warthog
Dr. Robert Bussard’s EMC2 Corp. with the U.S. Navy using recovery act funding working on inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) nuclear fusion based on the theory and prior work of Dr. Bussard has issued a very brief report. The plan is to determine if the experimental plasma scaling agrees with the theoretical models.
The U.S. Navy funding is directed to conducting tests on “Wiffle-Ball” plasma scaling law on plasma heating and confinement by EMC2.
The firm has burned $3,216,826 of an authorized $7,855,504 and has surpassed 50% completion of the work. As of September 30, 2011, the WB-8 device has generated over 500 high power plasma shots.
EMC2 is using the latest design, the WB-8, the next IEC or Polywell prototype in the series from Dr. Bussards’s initial device. The newest device has an eightfold increase in magnetic field strength compared to prior WB series devices, with the expectation of higher performance.
Of particular importance within the Navy contract is the option for an additional $4.46M for “…based on the results of WB8 testing, and the availability of government funds the contractor shall develop a WB machine (WB8.1) which incorporates the knowledge and improvements gained in WB8. It is expected that higher ion drive capabilities will be added, and that a “PB11” reaction will be demonstrated”
So far as we know, the group is led by Richard Nebel and Jaeyoung Park. The latest report has Mr. Park leading the group.
The only indication of progress is the continuation of the experimentation and study. That it’s not called off and everyone gone is a positive indicator.
What is known is that the experimentation facility is a fully outfitted to measure the confinement and the details needed to design the next step in the scaling of the machine to match the theory.
The raw truth is Dr. Bussard had passed away and the intellectual depth has to be recovered by a new set of scientists. Much of what Dr. Bussard had offered as intuition is being reported as on target with a great deal more being learned.
The IEC idea is based on an evolving theory going back to the Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor. It seems that the current effort is being made to prove or disprove this theory at the point the WB8 can achieve.
Dr. Bussard asserted that using better equipment primarily in the magnets that form the chamber the only significant energy loss channel is through electron losses proportional to the surface area. He also stated that the density would scale with the square of the field (constant beta conditions), and the maximum attainable magnetic field would scale with the radius (technological constraints).
Now here is the bait – Under those conditions, the fusion power produced would scale with the seventh power of the radius, and the energy gain would scale with the fifth power.
Dr. Bussard did not publicly document the physical reasoning underlying this estimate, but if its proven to be true, it would enable a model only ten times larger than the one Dr. Bussard used at his passing away to be useful as a fusion power plant. Those dimensions would be less than seven feet on the sides.
The second morsel is Dr. Bussard proposed fueling the reactor with boron-11 and proton fuel. However, there is some controversy about the viability of “p-11B” reactors. Bussard’s calculations indicate that the bremsstrahlung losses would be as little as one twelfth of the fusion power production. So far, while some think the proton and boron fuel approach will never work, Bussard and Dr. Lerner’s Focus Fusion will drive to the boron solution.
That’s because the fuels after the fusion leave no radioactive residue or in theory, make no dangerous radioactivity or radiowave emissions. Fuel experiments await a functioning fusion device with adequate power.
The second part of the fuel story is the fusion of boron and the proton result in a cascade of electrons that theory suggests could simply be captured and fed to the power supply. The power the electrons would deliver is another engineering feat to be explored.
Dr. Bussard offered a magnificent and elegant solution to generating power and other interesting uses. The EMC2 team and the U.S. Navy are quietly going about the step-by-step process of taking Dr. Bussard’s theoretical work to reality while recovering the intelligence lost at his passing.
If EMC2 and the Navy continue on with the next phase, that would be a signal to other researchers in the field that there really is something here to go after.
http://newenergyandfuel.com/
Some commentary here:
http://www.talk-polywell.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1681&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Guess we should have expanded and studied instead of eating Chap-Stick and hiding under the chairs.
Did he leave his ramscoop plans behind before he passed away?
Dr. Bussard lectured at my class on space exploration in 1982. Afterward, we had a chance to have dinner with him in Manhattan Beach. He enjoyed a couple of my Aggie jokes.
The quest for cheap, safe fusion power goes on. One thing I have learned is that science marches on. There are lots of blind alleys and fruitless pursuits, but eventually there is a breakthrough in our understanding of physics. It’s very frustrating, but continuing research is the only way forward.
Expect breakthroughs.
Fusion is the ONLY route to unlimited power and out of our current energy bottleneck.
I am a bit sceptical about sustained fusion outside of stars.
I really envision something kinetic, a power plant like a giant internal combustion engine run by tiny hydrogen bombs fed into it and detonated by laser.
But I really don’t know that much.
If I can summarize correctly, the claim is that a device little bigger than a 7-foot cube might generate electrical power directly, without radiation and without waste radioactive isotope waste. From a negligible amount of nuclear fuel.
That is small enough to fit in a truck or bus, say nothing of a space ship, a locomotive, an airplane, or any naval vessel worthy of the name.
And this is active research being funded by the Navy.
And now some news that is not about Rossi.And an interesting constrast to Rossi. No "secret catalyst", no "secret customer", no "self destruct mechanisms".
Unfortunately, the article shows a furnace blower (with Underwriter's Laboratory logo) as though it's a Bussard device. Shame on them.
Make such an effective a power plant economically, and we will all be driving helicopters after all! Brute force wins!
At the same time that "scale up" device that's supposed to start churning out stuff is remarkably small ~ compared to earlier fusion projects.
Isn't this an outgrowth of that early private program in Northern Virginia where the guys used lasers to blow up their factory ~ by aiming them at vials of heavy water?
So, the idea is particle beams aimed at boron ~ and they didn't blow themselves up so it's all good.
I'll wait.
They'll be pulling apart one of those big iron proton batteries soon enough ~ more robust, can run at a higher temperature without slagging out ~ and they might even have a few hundred thou left.
Notice, this is a really cheap project insofar as Obama money deals go ~ $5 million? Ain't no thang!
Ping (and I’m sure the CF list will be intersted...even the skeptics)
I think the envisioned final machine is a bit larger, but still far smaller than the ITER. And the "without radiation" depends on it being able to drive the proton-boron fusion reactor (needs higher energy than D-D or D-He3), but basically.....yes.
Well, I think the ITER (tokomak-based) approach is the real "brute-force design". Bussard's gizmo strikes me as "elegant". He has taken the advantage of magnetic confinement and used it to solve the single out-standing problem of electrostatic confinement.
To wit:
In the Bussard Polywell Fusion Reactor, magnetic confinement is used to hold a "cloud" of electrons in the center of a spherical reactor (since electrons are far less massive than even a single proton, the requirements for magnetic field strength is reduced). This serves as one "electrode" as the "negative pole" of the electrostatic confinement (the reactor shell is the "positive pole").
Positively charged reactants are injected by ion-beam, and are accelerated to the center of the reactor (by the non-material "negative pole"), and collide in the center. Any ions that don't react pass through the non-material "electrode", are slowed as they approach the "positive" pole, reversed, and re-accelerated back to the center.
This is basically the same approach as the "Farnsworth Fusor", which has been around for years, and even been the subject of high-school science projects. Such "Fusors" can definitely generate fusion (and neutrons), but radiation damage to the center metal electrode soon renders them non-functional.
I think those are the "inertial confinement" guys. Different approach. Lot of grant money being spent on it these days.
I am a long time commenter at Talk Polywell. I’ve Been watching this concept for years. Discussed theory till i’m sick of it.
Never seen a furnace blower like this.Hmm... when I looked at the article, they had a picture of THIS.
I guess it's time to start doing screen captures, since some of these sources are mutating after the fact.
Is this a parody of Mark Steyns earlier article in IBD?
Dunno. Haven't seen the Steyn piece and would be interested in it. Got link?
When I went to the LINK, there were no pictures at all.
I had to go to the LINK in the article which took me to WIKI and that is where I got the picture.
Just wanted you to know you were not going out of your mind.
: )
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