Posted on 11/12/2011 4:10:15 AM PST by Wonder Warthog
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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