LPP Fusion

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 […]

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The Real MIT Fusion Announcement

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. This past week many mainstream media outlets devoted coverage to an announcement of a fusion research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The MIT announcement highlighted an effort to develop a compact tokamak fusion reactor. The headline grabbing news was the prediction that this would yield electricity to the grid in 15 years. Much of this coverage positioned the announcement as possible due to some new novel scientific break-though. Let’s take a closer look. The tokamak device proposed by MIT is essentially the same design proposed by Russian scientists nearly 70 years ago. Tokamaks, invented in the 1950s by Soviet physicists Igor Tamm and Andrei Sakharov, grew from an original […]

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Fusion Funding Cuts

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. A few weeks ago President Trump released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2019. This proposal carries cuts to many scientific programs. Programs under threat include several fusion research efforts. Cuts might delay ITER construction funding. Yet, smaller programs could feel the impact most. The University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), which houses one of the most powerful lasers in the US, has slammed what it calls “potentially devastating” budget cuts threatened by the Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2019. University interim president designate Richard Feldman defending LLE released the following statement: The University was disappointed to learn that the Administration’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposes a significant […]

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The Drawbacks of ITER

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Far and away the largest fusion project on earth is the ITER reactor under construction in France. An international slate of countries support this research effort with billions of euros. The timeline for development and testing of this facility stretches into the 2050s. As the king of fusion projects ITER draws widespread press coverage. But bigger isn’t always better. In an article published in February of 2018, fusion research physicist physicist Daniel Jassby lays out some drawbacks of the ITER project. Dr. Jassby outline four critiques of ITER: electricity consumption, tritium fuel losses, neutron activation, and cooling water demand. When operational ITER will consume as much electricity as a medium sized city. […]

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Plasma Rings

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Here at FocusFusion.org we love aneutronic fusion. Aneutronic fusion is fusion without neutrons. The same type being pursued by LPPFusion. Another effort in pursuit of aneutronic fusion is TAE. Formerly known as Tri-Alpha Energy, TAE recently made news by securing time on a national super computer. TAE intends to achieve usable aneutronic with the help of computer modeling and guidance. TAE calls its approach to fusion “Friendly Fusion” power. Their device, called a field reversed configuration, or FRC, generates two large rings of plasma and heats them with an externally accelerated ion beam. These rings collide generating fusion reactions between hydrogen and boron fuel constituents. The fusion fuel is controlled without magnets […]

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Laser Driven Fusion

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. LPPFusion has been working toward net energy gain from a hydrogen-boron fusion reactor. LPPFusion’s approach uses natural plasma instabilities to generate the high temperatures and densities necessary for fusion. They have already demonstrated world record ion temperatures in their device. New beryllium electrodes will allow them to tackle the needed densities. However, an Australian lead international team is approaching hydrogen-boron reactions driven by a completely different mechanism. Physicist Heinrich Hora plans to use picosecond laser pulses to initiate aneutronic fusion. Two prior Focus Fusion Society posts have discussed laser driven fusion. This Australian team seems to be inspired by the promising outlook from this earlier research. In fact, the Australian team has […]

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Let There Be Light

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 […]

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Problems With Fusion

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Fusion has problems. Chief among them is that we haven’t been able to make it work efficiently here on earth despite over sixty years of research. But fusion also has broader problems. Inadequate funding, difficulty communicating, unequal funding, long development times, uncertain outcomes and over-hyped prospects haunt fusion to this day. Yet the possibility of fusion power is pursued ardently all over the world. That’s because the potential of fusion power can’t be overstated. This potential translates into some of it’s problems. Fusion is hard. Trying to coerce fundamental forces of nature to follow our bidding has proven exceptionally challenging. Lifetimes have been spent to gain only incremental improvements. The monumental difficulty […]

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Hurdles to Fusion

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. A Quora post from earlier this year is gaining visibility on social media platforms. The post asks and tries to answer what has been keeping us from making a viable fusion reactor. It cites a half dozen barriers that have proven difficult to overcome. Three can be grouped as communication issues, with the other three as funding issues. The communication issues cover public ignorance, poor communication from the scientific community and over hyped claims. People are generally unaware of fusion power, its potential and of current research efforts. It’s not a topic that garners mainstream media attention. Most folks don’t seek out such news. The lack of accessible communication from the fusion […]

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The Rise of Private Fusion

Written by Tim Lash, Focus Fusion Society Contributor. Historically, governments and universities were centers of cutting edge research. They were the primary types of institutions that could bear the risk of the most ambitious plans. Now a new type of venture is rising. Privately funded research facilities whose path is unexplored but who hold the potential for great rewards. Fusion research exhibits this trend. LPPFusion, Tri-Alpha Energy, General Fusion and Hellion are all privately funded groups pursuing fusion energy. Following the recent announcement of LLPFusion’s WeFunder campaign comes news of a British company, First Light Fusion, obtaining new venture funding. First Light Fusion (FLF) hopes to harness fusion power via a novel inertial confinement technique. Using proprietary computer simulation, they […]

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