Reply To: NIMBY FUD

[zapkitty]

andrewmdodson wrote:
Does it make sense to think of testing switching
devices separate from the reactor proper? I would
hope it feasible to say we can fabricate a small
vacuum chamber with electrodes as a dummy load?

… there’s a bit of a history between the Focus Fusion
project and switches 🙂

LPP ordered switches to the specifications needed
from a commercial supplier… and they didn’t work.

This delayed the project many months while LPP
worked their way through the process of designing
and making their own switches. And all of the FFS
forum posts that you see relating to switches are not
there because LPP feels there is a need to research
switches. LPP didn’t have a choice at that time.

But we’re told, fairly often, that this shouldn’t have
happened. That switches at the level that the Focus
Fusion test article needs should be readily engineered.
Indeed I expect the user asymmetric_implosion to be
along shortly to explain that the switches that LPP
needs are a solved problem 😉

So, and it’s just my opinion, unless the Raytheon
switches fail as well I don’t see switch research as an
immediate need.

Now, will more research be needed on the subject in
the future? Certainly. Operational FF units will need to
bring the cost of reliable, high-repetition switches
down quite a bit… would such a longer-term
undertaking be more in line with what you feel you can
do?