Blog – The Focus Fusion Society ("FFS")

FFS Data Deletion/Retention Policy

Focus Fusion Society will keep records of its members, volunteers, employees, grant receivers, donors and website users and other connected persons where the information is relevant for as long as it is relevant. We will make best efforts to ensure that information we keep is up to date. In case you want us to delete your information you can make a request to [email protected], which should normally be actioned in 14 days . You can also request adding your email address to blacklist to avoid future contact from us, which we will maintain in best effort.

Vox reported on the UN Climate talks December 15, 2019. The group could not come to an agreement on what to do about the Paris Climate Agreement. (https://www.vox.com/2019/12/15/21022674/cop25-madrid-climate-change-greta-thunberg). Endangering the planet even more. You have to ask, how much longer this bureaucratic downward spiral will continue. Sooner or later people had better agree to stop producing green house gasses, or fund fusion to stop the problem. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/15/1905132/-Greta-Thunberg-should-not-be-up-there#read-more

Focus Fusion Society Members Meeting 2018 Sunday, December 2 3:00 – 4:00 pm | EST

Please note that only members up-to-date on their dues are allowed to cast a legal vote in FFS annual members meeting. As such do not forget to donate in advance. Dear Fusioneers, It has been an eventful year. This is what Focus Fusion Society has brought you this year: New and improved website functionality and security New and exciting types of content on the website and social channels Regular updates on the website about what is happening in the Fusion Community New ways to get involved Better ways to provide feedback We are all very excited about the preparation for Beryllium Electrodes at LPP Fusion and wish them all the best. If you have experience and would like to spend […]

ITER Assembly

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. At times FocusFusion.org levels a critical eye toward ITER. The massive international fusion project has an out-sized impact on fusion research funding while pursuing well traveled ground. We advocate for aneutronic approaches like those of LPPFusion and others. However, a pair of videos highlights the awesome scale of ITER. The videos amply show ITER to be unarguably an impressive engineering and management project. While the videos are a few years old, they nonetheless remain pertinent. ITER construction currently approaches the timeline covered in the first video. The video, mostly well done animation, shows the assembly of the major reaction chamber components in the tokamak building. In actuality, the tokamak building construction should […]

New X-ray Diagnostics for WEST Fusion Device

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) won a DOE Office of Science award to develop new X-ray diagnostics for WEST, the Tungsten (W) Environment in Steady-state Tokamak, in France. The three-year, $1-million award will support the construction of two new devices at PPPL. This includes collaboration with French scientists and deployment of a post-doctoral researcher to test the installed devices. First of all, WEST is the upgrade to the Tora Supra, a French Tokamak situated at the nuclear research center of Cadarache, Bouches-du-Rhône in Provence. The WEST facility uses plasma-facing carbon components. Likewise, the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) at PPPL uses […]

Modeling ITER Performance

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor New research results support the predicted performance of ITER. Good news for those diligently constructing the massive reactor in southern France. In plasma, electrons separate from their nucleus leaving behind ions. To continue heating plasma to fusion temperatures requires injecting more energy via radio frequency (RF) waves. Free electrons and ions respond to these waves differently leading to different temperatures for both plasma constituents. Scientists needed to better understand how these differences influence overall plasma temperature and density. The combination of temperatures within the plasma produce “multi-scale” turbulence. Turbulence can reduce fusion reaction rates. The scientists used a “reduced physics” computer model called TGLF. This model simplifies the massively parallel and costly […]

Fossil Fuels Still Dominate

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Mainstream media loves to feature stories of the newest green energy initiative. Rightly so as humanity tries to cope with climate change. Each new initiative and milestone creates additional hope for the future. However, more balanced reporting may indicate we need even more progress. A National Observer article by Barry Saxifrage gives a more sober perspective. His article published last summer indicates fossil fuels still dominate globally. Mr. Saxifrage started with the well regarded “BP Statistical Review of World Energy.” Despite copious amounts of data contained in the report, it didn’t answer one simple question: how much fossil fuel is the world burning each year? So Mr. Saxifrage downloaded all the data […]

LPPFusion Funding Campaign News

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. LPPFusion has been running an equity funding campaign via the WeFunder website. The successful campaign has met the minimum funding goals, but the team hopes to meet their stretch goal in the last few weeks of the program. WeFunder website has been able to attract a new class of investor thanks to recent changes in U.S. securities law. As explained in a previous FocusFusion post, in 2012 President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act). Title III of this legislation went into effect on May 16th 2016. It allows for more liberal investment opportunities in private companies. LPPFusion is using these new rules to place an investment offering on […]

Let there Be Light London Screening

Book Your Free Tickets for the screening of Let There be Light for 2018 April 24 7PM at The Cinema Museum 24 – The Master’s House, 2 Dugard Way (off Renfrew Road), London SE11 4TH (Near Elephant and Castle – you can find the map below the form) Powered by Eventbrite

ITER News

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Last week we covered fusion funding increases under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) basic research wing, the Office of Science. However, additional fusion funding increases took place in other parts of the U.S. budget. The massive ITER project also received more funds than expected. The ITER international fusion research initiative has seen the U.S. balk at its funding commitments. The 2017 budget only provided $50 million of the scheduled $107 million dollars. President Trump had threatened to likewise curtail U.S financial commitment in 2018. This would have meant a $63 million dollar U.S. contribution in 2018 instead of the scheduled $122 million. However, in the Omnibus Appropriations bill, Congress agreed to […]