[Aeronaut]

Ivy Matt wrote: Well, we’ve got at least eight years to provide an alternative to these guys.

I’m more interested in the aneutronic fusion industry’s prospects. If the government funds a working fusion power plant in my lifetime, I’d bet on the Navy being the agent, leading with a hush-hush PolyWell program. This may or may not be sold via WikiLeaks, lol.

Our fair share of the pie is going to come when we as a people require it to happen by making aneutronic fusion R&D planning THE hot-button topic of at least one presidential election, which will automatically involve around 33 Senatorial elections. That makes aneutronic fusion headline news for up to 6 months, without much of an advertising budget.

[Aeronaut]

In what time frame, and on what terms?

[Aeronaut]

zapkitty wrote:

Long before the project is half done, I think and hope FF generators will be spreading across the planet like wildfire. Even though ITER is not purpose-designed to generate power, the loss of relevance of that 50-yr pie-in-the-sky “promise” will undercut and then eliminate financial support for it. It will end up as an aborted white elephant like the Super-Conducting Super-Collider. Saving lotsa billions and leaving France with a very interesting cleanup problem.

How so? Just stock it with FFs, Polywells, etc etc and keep on building but with an emphasis on prototyping gear. France can become the premier alt fusion research capitol of the world with just a fraction of the ITER budget… and do all that while generating more jobs than the tok would.

The interesting cleanup problem assumes they get as far as experimenting with D-T fuel, thus creating a lot of radioactive parts to dispose of. I wonder if the people downwind know how hard it is to contain hydrogen isotopes 100%?

[Aeronaut]

Great find! I like how he recommended it, too.

[Aeronaut]

Doesn’t sound like they have their design finalized yet, but the blank check era’s on its way out.

[Aeronaut]

I have sketched out some alternate basic system geometries placing 9 to 16 caps in a rectangular base and the DPF built above the HV plates to minimize inductance.

[Aeronaut]

Brian H wrote: Golly! They’re going to try and control the pinches, and may only be 2-3 years away from 100Kj scientific break-even! “To date, no one has achieved that.” Which will all change in about ½ yr. or so … ;p

But didja read the some funding required asterisk?

[Aeronaut]

Francisl wrote: Is self-inductance in the cables and distribution system the main problem preventing faster discharges? I suggest making inductance a useful thing. That would require using a second circuit to pre-charge the conduction system with a large current to create a strong stable magnetic field around the conductors just before the high voltage system discharges.

Another way to use the inductance could be to synchronize 2 or more FFs and switch the destination when a core’s inductance generates reverse EMF. Last time I sketched it out, it favored utility scale installations better suited for the PolyWell architecture.

We might be able to take that ground, but I’m thinking its faster and cheaper to build a full-scale PW with private funds for a change and see if the theory holds at full scale.

[Aeronaut]

MTd2 wrote: Would mind then explaining what is the nature of a plasma propagating inside the LPPX device?

I think the plasma in this medium should have a shockwave component. As the plasma progresses, it compresses the gas ahead. But if the gas has a polar nature, it will tend align its charges to perpendicular slightly ahead the shock wavet. Such alignment should make the gas ahead of it work a lightining rods elongating the wave front. So, the plasma would ride behind a hot wave front. The resistance should be smaller.

Have you accounted for the changing magnetic fields during and between the axial and radial phases?

[Aeronaut]

zapkitty wrote:

Impurities= uncertainties. TMPs are not a good place to cut costs, imo.

I know, you get into a question of purge costs vs TMP costs… but it might be a discussion worth having.

I agree, could lead to the good, better, best, bestest, most bestest marketing strategy. I used to work near vacuum pumps (not TMPs) which could quickly put a serious vacuum in the FF chamber. They are anything but small, light, or cheap, they make a lot of heat, and need at least one overhaul per year. I hate to imagine what all the specs are for a Turbo Molecular Pump that could handle even a 300 hz trigger rate.

I have a hunch this can be answered in the scientific, engineering, manufacturing, and marketing mindsets, lol.

[Aeronaut]

Impurities= uncertainties. TMPs are not a good place to cut costs, imo.

[Aeronaut]

A modified 1,000 gallon plastic storage tank should do just fine for fixed applications. Once the reactor’s core diameter and length are known, all that needs to be done is to run a tube that diameter down the tank’s axis. Should cost less than a steel tank.

[Aeronaut]

Tulse wrote:
But a pulsed device does require power input for each pulse — surely it is reasonable to define Q as simply the ratio of the amount of power produced by a fusion reaction to the amount of power required to produce the reaction. That definition is agnostic as to whether the reaction is steady state or pulsed. At the very least, we can integrate over a period of time for pulsed devices to make such issues irrelevant.

And I think it is a red herring to factor in the energy fed back into the FF device, since a steady-state device over unity could also feed its own energy back into maintaining the plasma, just not as directly. (And there is no reason in principle why the FF capacitors have to be charged directly from the device itself — that is just the potentially most efficient way to do so.)

I think Eric refers to this as ‘wall plug efficiency’, which I like for how simple and direct it is. Its also the way most people will perceive Q without a long conversation, imo. You also have a great point about integrating the pulses into a sort of average over time.

And why not extend the concept of a ‘net zero’ house (the solar and wind features sell as much power as it consumes) into a net positive business location? The higher the thermal to electrical profit ratio, the more critical it will be to charge the caps from the grid. Would it take an ultra brawny cap bank regulator to charge around 200 to 300hz?

[Aeronaut]

We can get much smaller and lighter in some applications where shielding may not be absolutely required- such as a very remote/ underground power plant, perhaps. Just be extremely careful to be sure all possible concerned parties are in complete agreement over the precise meaning of the vague concept of ‘safety’ before you try marketing the possibility, lol.

[Aeronaut]

What went wrong, in my opinion, is that you expect to schedule scientific proof from shot to shot and day to day. If I were investing on an annual scale, I’d be looking at these reports to be sure, but tracking what my investment produced over the year- by quarters. And I’d be expecting that unity may take more investment of time and capital.

I’d also be grateful that the word ‘surprise’ doesn’t cost gazillion$ like it does in government-funded projects.

Patience, Grasshopper!

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