[Aeronaut]

Was millions a typo, Brian? Seems like chump change on a global scale.

[Aeronaut]

Right on target with the prisoner’s dilemma, Rezwan. The reason that doctrines are so much easier to ‘discuss’ is that they’re a LOT easier to modify than core values. If people really wanted to change their values, there would be no market for dieting or quit smoking products.

So what are these cops going to do when Detroit figures out how to build 20M FFs/year and carbon emissions become a quaint non-issue?

[Aeronaut]

HermannH wrote: I suppose by drift tube you mean the ion beam converter. I have no idea how large an opening you need for the ions.
At any rate, both neutrons and x-rays will escape through that opening. So you need to provide some shielding. I have no idea what material you would use and what the geometry should be.
If I understand correctly, the entire room where the reactor sits is off-limits for personnel during operation and possibly for an hour or so afterward. I assume the concrete walls of the room will take care of any x-rays and neutrons that do escape the shielding.

All of this is important: In order to gain widespread acceptance and avoid overly restrictive regulations you need to demonstrate that the amount of radiation that can escape the ‘reactor room’ is comparable to, say, the radiation that gets out of a radiology lab in a hospital.

Yes, the drift tube encloses the ion converter coiled tubing. Since we have a tightly focused ion beam, we may be able to stop most of the stray X-rays with a one or two inch opening. Just musing here- I’m an electronics technician by training.

I fully agree about the safety factor- measurable radiation has to remain below cosmic background radiation in operation, and it has to do that as a passive, designed-in feature. My understanding is that the boron and lead outer shielding layers provide that level of attenuation. I was just hoping I could cut the length of the water jacket about half to around 4 feet, then use that volume to mount much of the support gear like vacuum pumps, fuel system, much of the cooling system, power conditioning, etc. on a square steel tubing frame.

Maybe this system is going to end up between 2 and 4 modules to fit under 14 foot ceilings and avoid the oversized load shipping hassles. Then there’s 14 foot bridges to route around…

[Aeronaut]

Yep, water is the best all-around solution, since the power output wiring would need an access tunnel below the silo- with little shielding from some angles. But water’s winning argument is the ability to pick the module up with an overhead crane and move it around just like any other machine in a growing factory. Thank you both for the reality checks.

PS- I’ve been assuming that the water jacket has to enclose the drift tube as well as the vacuum chamber. Would it still be shielded to below background levels if the water jacket only surrounded the vacuum chamber?

[Aeronaut]

Re: Henning: You mean like molecular hydrogen (H2)? Liquid hydrogen? Solid hydrogen? Molecular hydrogen which is stored in a tank, like those in a hydrogen powered car? Those tanks contain a resolvent (or whatever) that bounds to hydrogen, and the mass of the resolvant exceeds that of hydrogen a few times.

Yeah, I was originally wondering about pressurized hydrogen gas to make it denser. Didn’t realize there were so many forms of hydrogen.

Re: HermannH: The container for the water can be shipped in pieces and assembled on site. At the end you hook up your garden hose and fill it up. Well, you may have to use distilled water.

Seems that the water tank would have to be one piece so that the water is a 360 degree shield instead of having a bunch of seams. Hadn’t thought about distilled water, but it sounds safer than guessing what’s in the local water… that just might be able to react…

How about no shielding in some applications, such as where the core could be lowered into a silo roughly 1 meter in diameter? Them pesky neutrons would then have a boronated concrete wall as a partial shield, followed by several meters of dirt.

[Aeronaut]

Phil’s Dad wrote:

thank you a lot for your reply
I thought all people ignoring me, because I am new

Welcome takitook

No-one is ignored here – it’s just that some questions can only be answered by the very best.
And because they are the best, they are the busiest.

Keep asking the hard ones 😉

Thanx for opening this topic, takitook. I’ve been wondering where the line is drawn between a DPF and the FF, and the ability to run engineering programs in parallel with LPP.

[Aeronaut]

Rezwan wrote: Thanks to amcnea for taking the initiative in design. Attached is a screen grab for the design.

This is a modification of the nexus template by RocketTheme for Joomla. Visit the site and click in the drop down template menu on top. http://demo.rockettheme.com/

This is a good route to go. We get a spiffy template with all the cool javascript dropdown menus and such already designed, modify it to insert the expression engine tages for dynamic content. I believe these templates have been designed with w3 validation css and xhtml in mind, so it shouldn’t be too tricky to incorporate.

Well, it probably is a bit tricky. But the result may well be worth it.

Anyway, check out this draft. Great job! I like the copy on the text and the images as well. The design was in motion with the top bar changing ever few seconds.

Yeah, Baby! That theme is a huge improvement imho. There’s a simple script that detects the browser version and shows code that’s appropriate to, say, Mosaic users. I think you can find it on the W3C tutorial sites, but I’m understanding that over 98% of the web is using a constantly updating browser, so that level of detail (100% W3C compliant) may be in the diminishing returns category.

[Aeronaut]

I like the new double-wide window atop the image map. That almost screams “Start Here!”.

No single logic diagram is going to work for all visitors. Some are going to be looking for a top-down overview stressing benefits vs. cost and risks. Others are going to be looking for sytems level info that they can use to do rough-planning on how to integrate it into their organization or a client’s. Others are going to want to see every last nut, bolt, and formula. So a mini-survey about what type of information about (Focus) Fusion they need today might help them and you.

Dumping the mouseovers (I’m thinking they’re alt text) will make the pages less annoying while moving the mouse. Faster loading times are always good, too.

One other thing I’d like to see is to have the “Notify me via email when someone posts on this thread” default to unchecked.

Just my 2 bits.

[Aeronaut]

Professional investors like clean equity structures. They also like airtight control and quick profits. I see the sale of at least one manufacturing license as a much more viable route for all parties. A company with $10M to $20M on the table is very likely to be running their own engineering programs in parallel to LPP’s program. All we need to do is show thermal energy unity, and that we’re closing rapidly on electrical unity.

[Aeronaut]

Good looking home page, Rezwan!

[Aeronaut]

Augustine wrote: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24499/

Author proposes a novel way to use the Casimir effect from quantum mechanics to propel a vessel in a vacuum.

“Today, Alex Feigel at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, a government lab in Yavne Israel, suggests an entirely new way to modify the momentum of the quantum vacuum and how this can be exploited to generate propulsion.”

From what I can gather this does not lead to a perpetual motion machine, it takes energy to modify the momentum of the quantum vacuum (and to obtain “thrust”). Best of all you can test the effects.

Great article, Augustine. The last paragraph seems to say that this engine would convert energy into thrust without throwing mass out its as*. I didn’t see anything prohibiting it from working in a gravity field or atmosphere other than the amount of energy available and the engine’s efficiency, but I’m not a physicist, either. This could be a lot cheaper to build than a space elevator. :coolsmile:

[Aeronaut]

Sounds something like DPF in the days before Eric developed some theory. Can’t wait to see if they ever divulge how they overcame the Coulomb barrier…

[Aeronaut]

And you know my take on that, PD, from the New Genration thread. Governments around the world are locked into treaties mandating deuterium-based fusion research, while the other side of their mouths are praying for a white knight to save them from the environmental and budget problems….

Anybody know a good candidate? After all, 2010 and 2012 are big election years in the US.

[Aeronaut]

The first sentance of the PDF’s summary said it all: If LENR is real, and if it can be controlled…

[Aeronaut]

I started two new discussions on the FB site today, giving overviews of why FF is so small, what a FF-powered world could look like, and the breathtaking pace that it could domino with. Then I watched the evening news (circus is in town 😉 and was encouraged by what Palin and Gore were up to today.

We picked up a few new fans yesterday, and even more today. Many thanx to the FFS members who are already fans. To those who aren’t, a few minutes will help us a lot.

[Author]

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