Reply To: Investment risk

[asymmetric_implosion]

You have lost all the benefits of a PF and replaced them with all the problems of other fusion concepts. The problem with the HyperV concept and other similar concepts is the limited compression ratio. Using low density mass to push instead of a magnetic field limits your coupling to the strong shock limit for deuterium which is a compression of 4:1. By driving the plasma with a magnetic field one can achieve compression ratios of 10:1 or greater. In this configuration you also limit you ability to produce the instabilities that most consider necessary to produce the fast ions required to drive fusion in a PF. In the case of LPP’s approach with a quantum magnetic field effect, you need the high compression to generate the intense magnetic fields required to achieve the plasmoid.

In defense of hyper V they plan to use high Z gases as a tamper which will allow higher compression ratios but it is difficult to believe they will achieve a large compression ratio. The other problem for HyperV is the lack of support in DOE right now which was the dominant if not sole source of funding. Their big supporter was transferred to another project area and the new project manager isn’t as supportive of their approach. Last I heard, the entire concept was bad news at DOE.