[AaronB]

If we received $5M unexpectedly, I think it would be wise to go on a 6-month corporate retreat to an exotic island somewhere to make plans on how to use the leftover million dollars. Then, if we were like some other ne’er-to-be-mentioned corporations, we would give ourselves big bonuses with the remaining money for having acted so wisely with our windfall. 🙂

Or we could just use the whole $5M to keep plugging along.

After much thought and deliberation, and since I sunburn easily, I’m going to have to choose the latter.

[AaronB]

I think you’re probably referring to the National Ignition Facility (NIF) housed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), which recently set a record for neutron yield for laser-based fusion (inertial confinement fusion). On Oct. 31, they produced 3 X 10^14 neutrons with 121 kilojoules of laser light and D-T fuel. Then they did another test shot on Nov. 2 with 1.3 MJ of laser light, but didn’t fuse anything on that shot. I’m happy they’re making progress. If they choose to announce new developments and records by press releases, that’s up to them. They are already considered the experts in their field, so their claims are pretty much automatically accepted. LPP isn’t in that position, unfortunately, so we have to do it the long way.

[AaronB]

That’s right, and if you look at the first graph from that report in June, it shows that we were approaching the all-time record, and not just our own record. If we announced that we had broken that record, it would bring lots of interest from the scientific community. In the case of an announcement like that, it must be done through the right peer-reviewed channels if we are to be taken seriously. That’s just the way it is, so that’s why we wouldn’t be announcing it through popular sites like this first.

[AaronB]

The detailed monthly report went out to LPP investors a couple of days ago, and the condensed version will be posted soon at the LPP News page, and Rezwan will send the info to donating members of FFS first, naturally, and then it will be posted here for everyone to see. When we are ready to announce a record yield, we will do that through a journal or other peer-reviewed process, not by Twitter or a posting here. It’s a matter of scientific professionalism and protocol, and nothing personal.

[AaronB]

Since commercial FF generators are still a few years away, and we are being very open in this process, I expect the general population to be very welcoming. Once we reach breakeven in our current experiments, we will get a lot of publicity, and all of the public concerns about radiation and toxic fuel will be answered at that time. That would clear the way for later development and implementation in local communities. We don’t need to give off-hand dismissals to their worries because there are perfectly legitimate answers to the few concerns that pop up. We won’t have to be sneaky or dismissive. And yes, Rezwan is doing a great job getting the word out, and this forum is the place where concerns are being answered. Hopefully you all realize that you are paving the way for fusion implementation. Kind of cool when you think about it.

[AaronB]

I anticipate a situation where we license the technology to a manufacturer that builds several FF generators which are sold or leased to a utility company for testing at a pilot location. That location might be an electrical substation that powers a big neighborhood. There would be about 5 FF generators all drawing off of and feeding into the same big banks of capacitors, with the surplus being used by the customers. If one FF reactor needs to be repaired or serviced, it would go offline while the other 4 pick up the slack. If demand goes up or down, the pulse rate of all 5 generators would respond, varying from (off the top of my head) 100-500 hz. If there was a catastrophic failure and we had to shut the whole thing down, the utility company could tap into the regular grid to power the neighborhood until the bugs were worked out. After the pilot location was operated for a few months without problems, through a couple of electrode replacements, then we could start to go full scale. I imagine the utility companies would want to replace their most difficult nodes first, gradually working to replace the majority of their substations with FF generators, and eventually taking their big coal and gas-powered plants offline as the FF-powered grid becomes robust enough to handle the ups and downs of demand. Assuming it works well in one area, there would be little difficulty copying that template all over the world. The limiting factor at that point would be construction speed.

A second possible route into the utility market would be as a load leveler. FF generators would allow the coal or gas power plants to operate continuously at their ideal level, and only kick in as needed. FF generators would be located at the power plant and replace their current backup generators. This would have minimal impact to current operations, and would allow the utility to test and perfect the process without public scrutiny or NIMBY issues.

[AaronB]

The energy is released as an X-ray pulse and an ion beam. The ion beam is directed toward the drift tube, which is like a gun barrel hanging down the axis of FF1. Right now, there isn’t enough energy being released to worry about it too much, but as we get to higher energy levels, we will have to slow it down so we don’t blast a hole through the cap on the drift tube. We’ll slow it down with the capture coil, and put that energy into a capacitor bank for recycling and usage on the grid. If we are using the DPF for propulsion in space, we’ll just let the ions fly off, giving the device a push in the opposite direction.

[AaronB]

The axial field coil is working again. We fired some shots on Saturday, but ran out of fill gas for the switches (oops) so we had to stop. After getting a new tank today, we’re good to go. pB11 is still a little ways off, hopefully by January. Finishing with the switches is next, followed by figuring out the current bumps and output relationships. We need to get the pinch and max current to coincide and have that happen sooner. We need to ramp up the voltage without prefiring and get to higher currents. We have lots of data to analyze, but lots of other things are also going on (papers to write, people to call, etc.). It would be nice to have a big crew of physicists and engineers to help share the load. We decided we need several clones of ourselves.

[AaronB]

MTd2 wrote: 1.Won’t the realignment of filaments waste a lot of energy? Why?

Filaments can realign very easily since they are just a flow of electrons. If you watch a plasma ball in action, you’ll see filaments suddenly appear, merge easily with other filaments, and disappear instantly. The transition doesn’t take much effort. It only requires an easier path, and the electrons will naturally flow that way. Magnetic fields guide the flow and provide a kind of inertia that tempers the rate of change.

2.How many electrons are lost in the process?

I don’t know. I’ve never counted them. Some energy could be lost by light emission or heating of the gas, but there’s no way around that. The best you can do is to recapture it somewhere else or use those effects to your advantage.

3.How can one show that the toroid is the most stable state?

It’s sort of a circular argument. The filaments form a toroid shape because it is the most stable form, and it can be demonstrated that it’s the most stable form because it’s the shape that the filaments naturally go into. More technically, the axial z-pinch forces from the circulating current and the azimuthal theta-pinch forces work in harmony to create and compress a stable, self-sustaining environment (minus leakage) that can persist for a relatively long time, much longer than a simple spark. If someone else has a better explanation, feel free to jump in.

[AaronB]

MTd2 wrote: … Have you ever twisted a string so much that the twists starts twisting around themselves? It soon becoms a chaotic mass. So, how can you assure me that a chaotic state won’t dominate around the equilibrium point? Chaos would ensue, and a lot of energy would be lost…

This is probably what you were referring to when you mentioned wasted electrons. The comparison with a twisted string that kinks into a chaotic mass is close, but there are some distinct differences. A string has a relatively fixed length, so when it kinks past the first order spiral, it twists into one or more second-order twisted loops. A plasma filament is much more elastic, and filament loops can combine with each other unlike a string. A string’s lowest energy state when twisted is the “chaotic mass” state with the twisted loops sticking out. A plasma filament’s lowest energy state is the plasmoid. The merging loops keep it from becoming a chaotic mass, and there aren’t a lot of electrons lost in the process.

[AaronB]

Right, the problem that developed was between 1 and 2, which wasn’t a problem in the experiments last spring. More news to follow in the coming weeks. 🙂

On the multiple toroids question, between 2 and 3, it may be possible to produce multiple toroids, but it is unlikely because the toroid represents a lower energy state. Once a toroid forms, the stored energy in the twisted filament is drawn into the toroid, which effectively prevents others from forming. I suppose if there was enough stored energy in the filament, two or more could form simultaneously. In fact, this may be the case in nature with high-altitude lightning and its associated blue jets and sprites. We may encounter it along the way in our testing. If so, we’ll let everyone know.

[AaronB]

Skepticism and questions are vital to the discovery process, so don’t worry about that. Everyone is invited to take part in the adventure (and hopefully the party if we’re successful). By the way, congratulations on the wedding!

Rezwan, testing the directional stability of the ion beam is still on the to-do list. It’s important, but other things are higher on the priority list at this point.

[AaronB]

There are two separate processes going on. First, the axial field coil is used to impart a small amount of spin to the plasma sheath so the filaments merge gently. After the filaments merge into a single filament, that new filament generates its own large magnetic field that compresses the filament, known as a z-pinch. At that point, the filament starts to coil like a spring or telephone cord. The coils attract each other and collapse into the smallest stable shape, a toroid. The toroid continues to shrink under its own massive theta-pinch forces, and when the conditions are right, the energetic ions get squeezed so hard that they begin to fuse. The high magnetic fields keep the ions and electrons from bouncing in all different directions, thus preventing the production of a lot of X-rays.

So, when thinking about these things, remember that there are various stages of energy concentration with unique variables and control factors associated with each. We’re in the process of figuring out and optimizing each one, and how they affect each other. For example, the axial field coil will inject spin into the sheath, but it may affect the orientation of the plasmoid also. That would probably stabilize the ion beam output, which would be a good thing. Other factors will affect the overall process and eventual output. We also have to consider the cathode and anode lengths, fill gas composition and pressure, voltage and current (with associated rise time and duration), voltage, synchronicity of input from switches, etc. Then there is the matter of the diagnostic suite, including neutron detectors, X-ray detectors, cameras and shielding from noise and EMPs, software, etc. Then we have to take the output data and analyze and interpret it correctly. Did I mention that we’re writing the user’s manual as we go, and there’s no official technical support number to call? That’s the nature of the work. While that may sound daunting to some, it an engineer’s paradise! It’s hard but very rewarding work, and we’ve made a lot of progress.

[AaronB]

The equilibrium question is very important. To understand how this works, you have to understand that charged particles like to follow magnetic lines. If there is no external magnetic field to guide the ions and electrons, they converge in a chaotic mess when the filaments combine, losing energy in the process. The axial field coil creates a curved path that the electrons and ions can follow in a smooth way, creating a nice whirlpool effect. If too little external magnetic field is applied, the filaments will crash into each other (as you describe) and lose energy. If too much external magnetic field is applied, the whirlpool created will be so strong that the filaments will just circle around without combining. The sweet spot is the amount of magnetic field that will allow a gentle transition without the chaos. I’ve done the string-twisting experiment also, and if you’ve done it, you know that if you pull the string tighter, the twists come undone under higher tension. That’s what the magnetic field does. It provides that tension as well as a guide for the charged particles.

The next monthly report isn’t too far away, so you’ll get an update on our latest progress soon enough.

[AaronB]

Brian H wrote: Yoiks! A small fuel spill of chemically pure ammonia would make the air unbreathable for a 100-yd diameter. A big one would clear city blocks! Mass anosmia would be the probable result. 😉 I prefer the 10X higher energy density batteries that nano-electrode and other near-term technologies promise. Electrons don’t stink!

While olfactory irritation is no laughing matter, and definitely nothing to sneeze at, I would point your attention to this study.

If scientists and engineers can come up with batteries with the energy density and weight of liquid fuels, I’d be willing to go that route. I’m also concerned that if every car was to be converted/manufactured to use battery power, there wouldn’t be enough battery-making material in the world to do the job. The price of batteries would be astronomical for those who could get them. It’s fine if only a small percentage of vehicles are battery powered, but I don’t know how well it will scale up.

One option for Focus Fusion generators would be to run at constant output, exceeding the maximum daily electrical demands for an area, and any excess power could be converted to NH3. At night when demand was low, a lot of NH3 would be produced and stored for filling up gas tanks the following day. That way, one or more FF power plants could provide all the electricity and fuel for a town or neighborhood.

Hmmm, if Wal-Mart bought licenses and installed FF power plants at all of their locations, they could become the nation’s largest electrical utility and fuel producer. That would be interesting.

[Author]

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