[Aeronaut]

KeithPickering wrote:

And why are there so many apparent filaments at the top and bottom? Isn’t the number of filaments equal to the number of outer Copper electrodes?

The filaments are created in counter-rotating pairs, with one pair per outer cathode. So the number of filaments is 2 x electrodes.

See this image:

https://focusfusion.org/index.php/gallery/image_med/6/

I’ve been misinterpreting the slideshow. Glad the question was raised.

[Aeronaut]

Sounds a lot like the Cold Fusion fiasco. Eric’s method and reasoning behind it seem to have avoiding such a similar fiasco as the prime directive.

[Aeronaut]

Glad to have you with us, theanphibian.

A simplified view of the DPF is the Lee model, developed by professor Sing Lee of the UN University. http://www.nsse.nie.edu.sg/research/plasmaphysics/ComputationPkg.htm will get you the Mather style DPF simulator and all of the math behind the simulator, which includes the physics. This model divides each machine cycle into 5 phases, the Axial, Radial inward shock, Reflected radial shock, compressive/radiative, and expansion. As the names imply, the last 4 phases use a cylindrical model.

My understanding of the purple image is that its the filaments beginning to kink up near the beginning of Phase 2. I still don’t have a direct correlation between much of the Lee model (simplified but easier to grasp initially) and the LPP model, which is very detailed. But there are 2 simulators being tested. Maybe FF will have a package similar to the Lee model this year.

The compressing cylinder is the collapsing magnetic field, which can exceed 10GG, heating the plasmoid containing the fuel for any shot by compressing it into a near solid. The plasmoid diameter for the energy yield charts is 8.6 microns. As the plasmoid is compressed, some fusion begins, producing positively charged helium ions and the resulting free electrons. The magnetic field provides the motion and the tight focus of the beams.

Even though it needs to be shown as a beam for that concept, the electron beam is actually busy heating the plasma even hotter. Something like thermal runaway in an overheating transistor. This is where the majority of the fusion reactions begin occurring.

I’d love to give presentations on the FF in the Great Lakes region, but PM me if you can provide a venue in other regions and we may be able to swing at least a tele-conference. I’m currently working up a plan to clone the FF-1 at over 2,000 universities and colleges to pull a time warp on public awareness, time to peer-review, time to market, etc. I just posted the rough outline on our facebook wall, if you’d like to comment.

I think it was Napolean Hill in Think and Grow Rich, that thoughts draw others of their type.

[Aeronaut]

Cheap, clean, and abundant energy would be a great container for all the bubbles that we’re going to have anyway. The reason for that list is to get large numbers of people wondering how they can find a way to profit from the coming golden era of cheap energy. Everybody knows at least 100 people. Some of those people need a job or a better one. Some can bring the capital, talent, and opportunity together. Without that list providing specific visible benefits, clean energy will remain as distant in most peoples’ minds as buying a ticket to orbit the earth 10 times in one flight.

[Aeronaut]

HermannH wrote: I believe the numbers got a bit inflated; actually quite a bit.

According to this the total electricity consumption in 2005 was, on average, 297W per person on the planet.
Multiply this by the world’s population and you have a total consumption of 1.9TW.

One FF unit produces 5MW, so you need a total of 384,000 units to supply the current world demand.
Of course demand is not constant but varies during the day/year so your peak capacity needs to be quite a bit higher, say about 3 times as high. This gives you 1.2 million units.
Further assume that electricity consumption will likely quadruple in the next 10 years: 5 million units.
So for the next ten years we need to build on average 500,000 units. And that rate would probably be about what is needed thereafter to keep up with rapidly increasing demand and replacement of old units.

Now some parts (electrodes) may wear out rather quickly and may need to be replaced/refurbished several times a year. For these parts you could end up with 20 million per year.

Theoretically, we shouldn’t see cars with only one person in them, but they’re the majority of traffic over here. The onion’s production engineering and tooling chain is the key to prices so low that no government or commercial building can justify not having at least one on site. Next up is the ever-increasing power density vs pricing and trade-in value.

If you can get ahold of a copy of William C. Butterworth’s book “Wheels and Pistons”, I highly recommend it. The inside the box thinking of Henry Ford’s day was that nobody was going to buy 20M cars a year. Until he done it, shortened the standard US workday 1 hour, and doubled wages for all of his employees.

[Aeronaut]

jamesr wrote: Although it may be a little frustrating seeing other projects get this much investment; I take it as a positive sign that there is still money around whether from governments or private industry for this kind of research.

What you have to remember is the physics of fission and neutron transport is pretty well understood, unlike some aspects of plasma physics. Accelerator driven fission, in particular is something that an organisation like SCK-CEN has a lot of experience in, since that is how a lot of isotopes for medical uses are made. So they seem well placed to pursue this.

Once the key physics behind FF, like the suppression of bremsstrahlung, has hopefully been demonstrated to be a big enough effect to make breakeven possible. Then, after a year or so for another lab to verify the results, the proposals for serious funding can go full steam ahead.

Very well put, James. You pointed out a number of fusion science disciplines that I was only vaguely aware of. So fiduciary prudence seems to dictate staying inside the sand box. At least for large sums of other peoples’ money.

I’m working on a potential future’s business plan where several groups of 1,000 or more businesses and private investors lead the target (buy a ‘lotto ticket’, if you prefer) for $1,000 to have their favorite alma mater build a state of the art fusion lab around a FoFu-1 clone. The unity announcement automatically makes it SOA :coolsmile:

What I’m coming up with is that I need to sell the Boards of Regents so that they direct the Alumni Relations folks to shake the money tree forest and create the first visible ripple. The benefit is recruiting power and the potential to write ground-breaking papers that few have enough lab to confirm.

[Aeronaut]

Why invest in the energy to orbit the projectile? I’d just build a turntable and modify my fall of shot tables accordingly.

[Aeronaut]

Looks like your chicken gun, PD 🙂

Seriously, though, it has clear military implications once the friction heating allows re-entry targeting. I favor the SE despite the engineering curve because it’s being developed to move roughly 30 ton loads at around 120 mph. This will enable a space-based economy that doesn’t require bone-jarring acceleration or aerodynamically risky re-entries.

[Aeronaut]

Breakable wrote: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/WR_Approval_for_Myhhra_0503101.html
I wish FF had such a budget… maybe it should go hybrid ? 😉

I think our odds of huge funding would increase dramatically if we changed the tone of our copy to “May One Day Provide Benefits X, Y, and Possibly Z”. Worked for cold fusion 😆

[Aeronaut]

annodomini2 wrote: Found this in a little search:

http://www.abb.ch/product/ap/db0003db004291/c12573e7003304adc1256efc004d2922.aspx?country=US

Claim to have High Voltage/High Current solid state pulse power supplies, doesn’t specify details just contact information, but may be an avenue of investigation

I saw that page again yesterday, along with the solid state switch family they’re describing. Although the voltage and current limits appear to be way to low for a single package switching solution, the power overload delimiting table wasn’t mentioned. Since these are obviously intended for high power pulsed supplies, it could be worth contacting ABB about.

[Aeronaut]

WOW. I especially like the last chart.

[Aeronaut]

The switches have to carry a huge amount of power and current, fortunately for only a millionth of a second every thousandth of a second in ballpark figures. This low duty cycle helps a great deal with cooling and power lost as heat, but is almost science fiction when you shop for ways to switch that much power that fast and precisely without paying too much in inductance.

My first thought is always use a bank of stud-mounted SCR silicon controlled rectifiers, which I’m sure would cost less money, at the cost of way too much inductance.

My proposed solution is to turn the physics, math, and engineering departments of around 2,500+ universities loose on switch technology, capacitor technology, and the onion’s production systems. Somewhere in that maelstrom is at least one pocket of people who will find a way.

I’d also bet on that group to solve several of the key production engineering challenges. This is how we speed up time to market, or, in the worst case, make sure the engineering phase takes no more than 3 years.

[Aeronaut]

Aneutronic fusion power is a wonderful tool for spotting qualified 21st century leaders. There’s at least 2 types of these right now- since most haven’t heard of AF, let alone FF, those qualified leaders are the ones willing to immediately apply FF in their mind’s eye to the office they’re running for.

When a few good leaders begin spreading the word, we’re going to become much more visible.

[Aeronaut]

I just got back from a “meet the candidates” gathering for people running for State office. I was testing the hypothesis that these candidates may be aware of FF’s timetable but waiting for the success headline before publicly endorsing fusion, since fission is known to work and fusion is technically speculative at this point from their point of view.

Only one knew about aneutronic fusion and its implications on many levels. If I did it right, and the follow-up Monday night in another town reinforces and expands the number of state and local candidates I’ve pitched, we’re going to be getting some new members, looking for more detail.

Something I noticed while working my way around that room and back was how many of these people were mingling with each other as well as the potential voters. This is a good thing when you’re pollinating the idea of practical aneutronic fusion power scheduled for energy break-even in 2010 or 2011. If they’re talking about you and / or your message, you’re promoting every time any of them think about energy, emissions, job creation, budget fiascoes, etc. etc.

Right now this seems to be the most productive way I’ve found to leverage my time promoting FF. So get out and ask your candidates if they’ve heard of aneutronic fusion, and its ability to become history before the election. http://politicsone.com will give you the slates for your state (sorry, US only) and federal candidates in 2010 and 2012.

[Aeronaut]

pluto wrote: G’day

How old do you need to me to become an OLD Timer?

Any age you please, Pluto. It’s strictly how many posts you’ve made.

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