Reply To: DREAD Weapon System: Devastating, Jam proof, silent

[asymmetric_implosion]

I’m sure it’s been regulated as a radiation source. I’m confident it doesn’t have a site license for a power plant, the environmental impact study is not complete, the public hearings haven’t taken place and neither the EPA nor NRC have validated the design of the reactor. All these steps have to be completed and they are costly, time intensive steps.

Aneutronic fusion is the holy grail of fusion energy. Mr. Lerner is not the first nor will he be the last say it. Many scientists believe that if fusion is to be successful, aneutronic fusion is the only way. The idea has plenty of support. It is the people working on aneutronic fusion that generally turn scientists off. Optimism with little data doesn’t impress scientist. Sub-par performance with extreme optimism does not impress scientists. FoFu-1 just caught up with other machines around the world. To me, it seems premature to market technical folks about the wonders of aneutronic fusion. It’s a tired line modified from a Tom Cruise movie, but show me the data! 🙂 Scientists in the field are generally aware of LPP’s claims and work. People are also aware of Tri-Alpha and their work. If someone asked me for an objective assessment, Tri-Alpha had done a better job of convincing fellow scientists of their approach. They have data to support their claim and they only publish or present when they can back it up. Based upon Tri-Alpha results, new experiments are being discussed at NSTX at Princeton. Tri-Alpha has contributed to advancing our understanding of fusion in the general context. I’ve been asked by a number of people about LPP. An objective characterization of the their results to date is neutral at best. They have done what everyone else has done. They have repeated experiments and generally gotten the same results as others. The scaling law of I^5 is not new. Some have claimed scaling laws at large as I^5.7 with data to back it up. Mr Lerner has spent a great deal of time spreading the “good news” of aneutronic fusion and little time supporting it with hard data. The problems of FoFu-1 were encountered twenty years ago by people working at the 2 MA level in the plasma focus and the remedies are well published. The Z-machine at Sandia deals with currents at the 26 MA level so 2 MA is not a problem in modern pulse power even on a ~$2M budget. I hope in the next year that FoFu-1 will pass other machines and show some hints of plasmoid formation as Lerner’s theory suggests.

The marketing is a good idea for non-technical folks and politicians. I think presenting the aneutronic fusion argument to the general public will help in the long term. My caution is how it is presented. If people want to rewrite a textbook go for it. This was just a warning that can be ignored.