[Henning]

Actually I was thinking of the ring including its thorns only two centimetres high (1cm ring, 1cm thorn), with each thorn blends to a rod. The rod configuration stays the same.

Also take a look at Jan Brzosko’s presentation (pages 30 to 32), where he explains the concept of knife edge. This is a ring around the anode, actually with best results (for 45kJ) if that ring has negative height.

[Henning]

Aeronaut wrote: Rather, we’d need to experiment with pulse rate, cooling, electrode life tradeoffs, overhaul scheduling and costs, etc. to determine how many of our stackable modules are optimum for, say, repowering a 1.6GW coal-fired plant.

That’s actually engineering. What we need to establish, is the correct order of magnitude of energy output compared to energy input. The goal for FoFu 1 is to show that QT > 1 (thermal energy output bigger than energy input). Next step is to show that’s QE > 1 (electric energy output bigger than energy input) with FoFu 2. Only after that we can start twiddeling with pulse rates and stuff.

[Henning]

I don’t see any tapered rods on the photo of the DPF. That’s in case I’ve translated tapered correctly.

The coil is equivalent to the shifted rods, not a backup. So you could use the initial momentum also in a tubular setup. Copper is not magnetic, so that wouldn’t affect the magnetic field of the Blake Coil.

But with the diameter you’re right. So just inserting the cylinder reduces the inner diameter for about a millimetre. The cylinder doesn’t need to be strong, because the rods supports it on 16 positions. And as it only supports the formation of the sheath, it’s maybe only a centimetre high. More a ring (with a crowny side) than a cylinder.

So we got a new part of the DPF: the Keech Ring. 😉

But maybe the sheath formation is not a problem. That needs to be measured.

[Henning]

Probably not a bad idea at all. Maybe the cylinder itself should be crowny, so the sheath has time to split in an orderly manner.

[Henning]

Because there is no switch that big and that fast. One solution was to use a diamond laser switch (diamond is a non-conductor, but if an ultra violet light shines on it, it conducts pretty well). But as I read here on the forums, there isn’t even one of those switches that big (yet). So they used the approach with multiple switches, and not diamond laser switches.

[Henning]

Actually timing is crucial. All capacitors have to shoot at the same time. If one capacitor is early, the sheath already runs away before the others set in. Or when it’s late that capacitor just puffs off its energy.

Main thing here is acceleration, so the final destination is reached at top speed.

[Henning]

Dito. 🙂

[Henning]

Tulse wrote: To be fair, as far as I know currently nuclear plants don’t figure in permanent disposal costs in their bills to consumers. And my guess is that one major market for these units is outside the US, where issues of insurance may be less of a concern. (I’m also not clear that a sealed unit would have more insurability problems than a conventional plant.)

Exactly, that’s the point. Nucluear fission plants don’t include these costs in their calculation. Thus it’s much more expensive, than commonly voiced. You pay the costs by tax. Or your children pay them with their health. Either way.

[Henning]

Tulse wrote: at less than 10 cents/KWh

That’s the price if you just dump the waste in your neighbour’s garden or let it sit in your own.

Also insurance not included. Just ask Lloyd if they would insure your little bomb in your backyard.

So multiply it several times to get the real amount.

[Henning]

Li+n -> T (plus anything else) is just the process described in the paper to produce tritium easily. Sellafield may have produced heaps of tritium, but the half life of tritium is just 12 years. That means in fifty years the tokomaks are going to be productive, none of the tritium is left.

That’s the point, you need fission reactors to feed D-T-fusion reactors. And uranium is exhausted in maybe 30 years, but you can’t store the tritium.

And thorium? Well a nice idea, I don’t know much about it. Maybe ten times better than uranium and ten times more abundant (whatever, I don’t really care at the moment). This makes it as much of a problem as uranium before: same amount of waste. But there’s no way of storing that waste safely (exception: the Swedes have a tectonic safe granite vault, but they won’t let anybody else dump their rubbish there).

So same problem with thorium as with uranium: heaps of uncontrollable waste.

[Henning]

If I understand you correctly you wanna submerge a DPF in heavy water (deuterium plus oxygen). Then with an electric discharge you’re creating a bubble big enough to to cover the complete DPF, including the base, the insulator, the electrodes. And this perfectly, otherwise the sheath will go astray. Within that bubble it’s 10GPa, or is it just the initial pressure (probably much more so, I suppose). Ok, that bubble expands from tiny (10GPa) up to the size of the DPF, then it’s maybe the required 1kPa (10mbar) for the sheath to form. Remember, you need a vacuum for the DPF to work. Nothing gained compared to a gaseous deuterium/oxygen mixture, and oxygen is a bad idea for short lived fusion anyway.

[Henning]

That’s because of the strong magnetic/electric field (well, more electric field) of the DPF. Ions and electrons are charged particles and thus affected by the electric field. Neutrons aren’t charged, so that’s why they are not affected. Same with photons, they scatter in all directions.

[Henning]

Axil wrote:
Over the years, other people have been discharging electric arcs into heavy water with no ill effects, but nobody has attempted to form a plasmoid in heavy water yet. I think it is worth a try.

Nope, isn’t. You won’t get plasma. For plasma you need gas. For a DPF to function you need a pressure of about 10mbar. You can try to fuse deuterium (didn’t follow what for, but anyway), but only as a gas. That’ll give you some neutrons (and some energy), but that’s it. In fact D-D fusion is a standard experiment done with a DPF.

And forget about fusing tritium in a industrial style, as I mentioned in another thread.

[Henning]

That’s why I titled it “D-T-Fusion Illusion”. There is no such thing as tritium in consumable amount.

Aneutronic fusion is still a dream. We’re working on it, but the chance of success is maybe 0.00001%, 1%, 50% depending on whom you ask. So take the realistic/optimistic middle value of 1% (I’m personally much more optimistic, but that doesn’t count).

This article rules out neutronic fusion in a industrial fashion, at least its easiest way to do it (D-T-Fusion). This leaves you with D-D-Fusion. Back to specs.

I haven’t looked into thorium fission (you’ve talked about it here somewhere), but this leaves you with similar problems as uranium fission. I don’t wanna discuss it here, it’s probably ten times better. Good. Accepted.

The problem with thorium fission is, it doesn’t feed any electricity into the grid yet. You’re free to point out an experimental reactor (or actual productive reactor) to prove me wrong. But that’s not the point of this discussion.

The main points are:

* Not enough uranium for newly constructed reactors – so stop construction of new uranium fission reactors

* D-T-Fusion will never be feasible – so stop ITER or switch to D-D-Fusion

* He3 (the isotope) farming on the moon is pretty much bullshit because the transportation costs outweight the benefits by several orders of magnitude

I took the opportunity to add the last point. Just to squash any high flying dreams.

[Henning]

Axil wrote:
If the FF reactor plasmoid is formed on the basis of a constantly varying terrestrial magnetic field lines, the direction of the polls of the plasmoid will also vary over a wide range. Is this true?

If it is true, how will the ion conversion tube in the FF reactor be adjusted to compensate for this variable directionality of the alpha particle beam caused by the variability in the magnetic field lines of the earth?

If not true, does magnetic field line variability have any effect on the plasmoid?

You’re right with the plasmoid being affected by the earth’s magnetic field. It actually induces the primary spin. With a coil around the DPF (see patent application), that spin is introduced in a controlled way. But you don’t need to act on the deceleration coil (ragowski coil), because the alphas shoot through in a straight way (much faster anyway).

[Author]

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