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 […]
Read MoreWritten 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 […]
Read MoreWritten by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Late last week the final 2018 budget was passed by the United States Congress. While delayed six months, this budget contains significant increases for programs backed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). DOE’s basic research wing, the Office of Science, gets a 16% boost, to $6.26 billion, in a 2018 omnibus spending bill passed by Congress last week. In contrast, last May President Donald Trump’s administration had proposed a 17% cut. The Office of Science oversees six programs, and fusion energy sciences saw one of the largest increases. Fusion research funding will increase 24% to $410 million. This compares to $331 million distributed to fusion programs under the 2017 budget. It’s […]
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