Iran and LPP in a team effort…

[mchargue]

This is an unexpected collaboration.

—-
A US company and an Iranian university have agreed to collaborate on nuclear fusion, the elusive technology that promises a limitless supply of clean energy. New Jersey-based Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Inc and Tehran’s Islamic Azad University will jointly design a fusion machine that “would be affordable to construct in industrializing nations”, according to a contract signed last weekend and seen by The Guardian. The partnership comes amid tensions between the US and Iran over allegations that Iran is enriching uranium – a process that is different from fusion – to support a nuclear
—-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/25/iranian-team-collaborate-us-nuclear

[zapkitty]

mchargue wrote: This is an unexpected collaboration.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/25/iranian-team-collaborate-us-nuclear

Good news!

And the Guardian article is okay if brief…

… but I wish that pic of a tokamak-style toroid could have been of something more relevant instead 🙂

[Joeviocoe]

zapkitty wrote:

This is an unexpected collaboration.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/25/iranian-team-collaborate-us-nuclear

Good news!

And the Guardian article is okay if brief…

… but I wish that pic of a tokamak-style toroid could have been of something more relevant instead 🙂

Yeah, people associate the Tokamak picture with Billions of dollars of financial waste and a project that will take 30 years to complete.

[tcg]

The article was good, if a bit tokamak-heavy, and the collaboration with Azad University could lead to some interesting developments, but there are a few qualifications.

LPP is wading out into a sea full of hungry sharks, and I refer to the political situation. Despite the fact that Persians are in the main a decent and honorable people, their current government is on the U.S. “bad boy list” over the nuclear power/uranium enrichment/bomb business. There are those here who would like nothing more than to smash Iran back to the stone age, even though the uranium enrichment is only a smokescreen for the real reason. They have a vested interest in maintaining the tension, and the LPP collaboration with a Persian university has the potential of knocking the props out from under their arguments and spoiling their game. They may wish to fight to preserve their leverage. The sharks, you see.

I hope my reservations are unwarranted. I would only advise extreme caution — trouble could come from unexpected quarters.

I must say, though, that you did put a smile on my face.

[Tulse]

Are there any details on the device covered by the agreement? Given the state of research by LPP, a contract for designing new reactors seems a bit premature to me.

That said, the DPF approach is probably the most suitable of all fusion approaches to use in regions with limited technical resources. All other candidates, with perhaps the exception of Polywell, seem to require a much greater technical and engineering base.

[DerekShannon]

We will post the full agreement shortly, which makes it a bit more clear that we are talking about a machine like Focus Fusion-1, with improvements based on our experience, but still a research device.

[Tulse]

Thanks, Derek. I continue to be amazed at the transparency of the LPP efforts — I don’t know of any fusion research project, much less the private efforts, that provide so much information about their ongoing activities. Kudos to the team for embracing the true spirit of science.

[ikanreed]

I find this uncomfortable because of the amazing number of “accidents” that befall Iranian nuclear scientists. More seriously, is the U.S. State department OK with this? Iran does have a pretty wide net embargo on it right now.

[DerekShannon]

We have been reaching out to a bunch of folks at State and have only heard crickets thus far. Sanctions are actually enforced by Treasury, but again, the agreement was written specifically to fall under the exemption for collaboration towards scientific publications. It is unnerving that there has been violence against nuclear scientists, but we did consider that and concluded it was more important to move forward–And we hope this will lessen the chance for violence by defusing tensions.

[ikanreed]

Yeah, that’s a noble goal, I hope the US government sees it that way.

[MTd2]

It seems that the war rotten egg heads are complaining here already:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/05/lawrenceville-plasma-physics-has.html

What a shame. Many people from US do not want peace, only war and war, and more war! It sickens me. I am glad I was banned (because I complained about the imperialistic intentions from US towards Iran) from that blog a few months ago, although it is also my favorite one.

[asymmetric_implosion]

It makes me sad to see that international collaboration has to be between so called friendly nations. Expanding a network of scientists is almost always a good idea.

From a business side I would be worried about the feelings of investors and potential investors. I agree that the US attitude toward Iran is deplorable, but how do the folks with the cash feel? Can Q>1 put aside concerns about foreign collaborations? I don’t know the answer. I hope there are some open minded folks with big wallets.

My concern from a political side is not Dept of State or Treasury. Worry about DoD and DHS. If Q>1 happens, the technology will likely show up on a military restricted technology list. Once that happens all the publications will be clamped under International Trafficking of Arms Restrictions. If you run afoul of those, you end up in jail. Anyone who knows about plasma flow control has heard about J. Reece Roth formerly of U. of Tennessee. Instead of living out his golden years at home, he’s rotting in a jail for taking the wrong laptop to China. I hope it doesn’t come to an ITAR classification but if it does, publishing gets a lot harder. I’ve had to use very careful language to get my PF publications past ITAR reviewers. A collaboration is more than a strike against you with people like that. I was lucky to have folks that supported the work and wanted it published. God forbid you run across someone that knows nothing about the science and sees terrorists everywhere. If anyone is an APS member, check out the story in last month’s Physic’s Today about secrecy and the atom bomb for a flavor.

Best of luck navigating the choppy seas of science, business and politics.

[MTd2]

I would be really happy for helping to achieve practical fusion energy, even if that meant getting a life sentence or death sentence… I would feel that my life had a purpose.

[AaronB]

The guys with the cash that I’ve talked to seem fine with it so far. As for our personal security, nobody in the security world cares about fusion. I’ve spoken to them. If we were dealing with radioactive fuels, waste, or enrichment technology, it would be a different story, but as it stands now, we are not even a footnote on the radar scopes of the DoD or DHS. We might as well be smashing cookies together at 180 keV. If you wanted to make a weapon out of the DPF, the best way would be to stick it in a big crate and drop the whole thing, capacitors and all, out the back end of a C-130 on the enemy’s head, but a forklift would be as effective.

As far as going to jail or dying for a cause, we are all under a death sentence already. We just choose how to spend our time and what cause to support before our day comes. Figuring out fusion seemed like a good candidate to me, which is why I’m doing it.

[ikanreed]

I didn’t seriously think it was that risky a thing. The only non-sarcastic concern I had was that there would be serious legal repercussions I hope there aren’t. If Iran got a working fusion reactor, they’d lose all pretense for their existing fission program. It couldn’t possibly be portrayed as a peaceful energy endeavor anymore.

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