Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Fusion fans have the opportunity to give themselves a most welcome gift this holiday season. Amazon Video recently began carrying a fusion documentary called Let There Be Light. Principally filmed in 2015, it presents the state of the ITER project at that time. However, throughout the movie alternative approaches to fusion are presented. Researchers from General Fusion, LPPFusion and Wendelstein 7-X are covered. Directed by Canadian filmmakers Mila Aung-Thwin and Van Royko, the documentary highlights the hurdles to fusion-based power generation. By examining the challenges before ITER, the filmmakers illuminate the complexity of the problem, the costs required and the significant project time scales that result. The difficulties plaguing ITER; funding, international […]
Read MoreWritten by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. A joint announcement recently outlined a new collaboration between LPP Fusion and the University of California San Diego (UCSD). The Center for Energy Research (CER) at UCSD will cooperate on fusion research with LPP Fusion. The research will strive for sustained fusion power from a dense plasma focus (DPF) reactor. CER Director, Farhat N. Beg stated “LPPFusion is a leader in this field and will make available to CER its research data and expertise to help us set up our own DPF facility at UC San Diego.” The benefits of fusion energy from a DPF have guided the development of LPP Fusion’s Focus Fusion 1 (FF-1) reactor. These benefits include low cost, […]
Read MoreWritten by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. LPP Fusion recently released a newsletter. The letter outlined three items and gave insight into the research program for the balance of 2017. News of a new cathode along with reactor data analysis and maintenance updates were included. The most significant news was the arrival of a new beryllium cathode. A beryllium anode was received earlier in the year. With both in hand, plans for swapping out the current tungsten terminals can proceed. The balance of September will see some final testing with these tungsten electrodes. Then disassembly of the vacuum chamber will begin. The reaction chamber will receive a fresh titanium coating and have the electrodes changed out. “We expect that […]
Read MoreWritten by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. These days the term hybrid normally refers to automobiles. Most car companies now offer models propelled by both battery powered electric motors and fossil fuel engines. Nuclear reactors can also come in hybrid varieties. In this case the hybrid design features both a nuclear fusion and a nuclear fission component. An article recently posted to power-technology.com offered a comparison of this hybrid reactor design in relation to some of the leading fusion research efforts. All nuclear power stations in the world today use fissile materials for fuel. They use heavy atomic isotopes which split into lighter elements under the right conditions. The most common reaction is when a heavy atom absorbs a […]
Read MoreWritten by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Edited by Ignas Galvelis, Supervising Director. Last fall Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Fusion (LPP Fusion) Chief Scientist Eric Lerner was the featured speaker for the New York City Physics and Astronomy Meetup groups. Fortunately, the event was captured on video and recently released as a YouTube video series named ”The New Race to Fusion.” Mr. Lerner spoke to the assembled groups for over an hour on the current state of fusion research including his own. He also touched on the background of several ongoing fusion efforts, as well as their best fusion results. Most interesting were the comparisons made between these current outcomes and those of his own Focus Fusion-1 device. Based on a […]
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