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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...

The boys at Talk Polywell have uncovered the details of the WB-8 contract [pdf]. Those details can give us some insight into how WB-7 has gone. From the looks of things - rather well. The current effort will build on what has been completed under these previous contracts as well as requirements to provide the Navy with data for potential applications of AGEE with a delivered item, wiffleball 8 (WB8) and options for a modified wiffleball 8 (WB8.1) and modified ion gun. The objective of this procurement is validation of the basic physics of the AGEE concept as well as...

Dr. Robert W. Bussard died at his home in Santa Fe, NM on October 6th. Inventor, entrepreneur and author, he was the originator of the Interstellar Ramjet as known on Star Trek as the Bussard Collector. A fixture in Science Fiction literature, the Ramjet continues to be the only method known with the possible capability to propel humankind to the stars. Dr. Bussard was also instrumental in developing the nuclear rocket program at Los Alamos National Lab in the 1950s and 60s. At his death, Dr. Bussard was the President and CEO of Energy Matter Conversion Corporation (EMC2), a company...

Dr. Bussard and his team at Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation, after close to 20 years of hard work, have developed a revolutionary radiation-free fusion process that could change the world as we know it today. Fusion is the energy that powers everything in the universe. The sun's energy comes from fusion. Alternatively, fission is the process whereby heavy atoms, which are nearly unstable, are split into two radioactive atoms. Fusion, on the other hand, is when two light atoms merge. The ultimate fuels for fusion include hydrogen and other light atoms such as lithium, boron, and helium isotopes. Some of these...