[Henning]

Ormond:

There had been an article about ‘Focus fusion’ but it has been deleted after Eric and Aaron had big debates with someone called ‘ScienceApologist’ (or something similar). The entry ‘Eric Lerner’ even has been one of the most controversial in Wikipedia because of that debate. So you have to be careful not to wake sleeping dragons again.

I think what’s Aaron doing is to add small pieces to ‘Aneutronic fusion’ updating the advances. One of the gatekeepers there is Art Carlson, a physicist involved with tokamak construction (currently at Leibnitz Rechenzentrum in Garching near Munich) – as far as I remember. Art himself is quite interested in Robert Bussard’s Polywell, and is a frequent contributor to talk-polywell.org . Eric and Art had long discussions about the validity of Eric’s theories on focus fusion, but in the end admitted the possibility Eric might be right. [ I got that from reading talk-polywell. ]

But now with ongoing experiments, focus fusion could be described just as an experiment as any other physical experiment like LHC. As long as its experimental nature is emphasised and not being described as a hypothetical device, this could even pass somebody like ‘ScienceApologist’.

[Henning]

Lawrenceville Plasma Physics had a two-pages fold-up brochure until recently, which would have been quite a good start.

With the help of of Google I reconstructed its former location, but it has been removed: http://lawrencevilleplasmaphysics.com/media/LPP_Brochure.pdf

Maybe LPP removed it deliberately, maybe it just vanished.

I’ve printed it on paper, but I don’t have a digital copy of it anymore.

[Henning]

Hmm, I for my part thought the force of the ions passing through the coil would enough to repel any atoms going the other way. If not, add a valve or gate after the coil to minimize leakage.

[Henning]

The helium particles are in fact ejected by the ion beam passing through the coil by the mere fact that they are positively charged and in a big electric/magnetic field. Behind that coil is a chamber which is evacuated. The main chamber contains evaporated decaborane with a pressure of about 10 mbar (7 torr). So the main chamber is always filled with that gas at low pressure compared to our atmosphere. Only a very small portion of the gas is ignited.

The main concern is overheating, which will limit the rate of the pulses, i.e. how fast you can remove waste heat from the anode. Current design proposes a beryllium anode (and also cathode) with helium as coolant, because of the low Z (number of protons in their core). Beryllium and helium are translucent for x-rays.

[Henning]

Take a look at the talk given by James Balog where he presents time lapse photographs of various glaciers around the globe.

That’ll make it more perceptible and comprehensible by seeing it with one’s own eyes.

[Henning]

Brian: Exposed to too much Bush propaganda?

[Henning]

Boron actually is one of the hardest materials. Ok, hardness might be not the only thing to prevent electrode degradation.

In some configurations it even outperforms diamond:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327241.200-diamonds-are-for-softies–boron-is-harder.html?full=true&print=true

As pure boron (B28), which is half as hard as diamond (see above), it looks like this:
http://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/archive_articles/090129_Oganov_Bor/index_EN

Might be still hard to produce anyway.

[Henning]

High voltage DC is actually available, but seems to be more expensive.

See Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current

It’s mainly used for subsea cables.

[Henning]

I wasn’t sure what Solspace is, and that it would integrate in the currently used framework. I thought it would be something completely new.

[Henning]

Actually not everybody who is registered in the forums should be able to post a blog on focusfusion.org. Someone who wants to add his/her blog on this site (only fusion related) should ask Rezwan for a account by private message, and she’ll select the ones eligible. I think we don’t want anyone proving the existence of any gods or any other bogus posts on the official frontpage.

By the way, the Solspace modules cost a few dollars. There a other content management solutions like Drupal, but I don’t know about it ease of usage. Or the one you’re using anyway.

[Henning]

Maybe also a tripod?

[Henning]

jamesr wrote: The alloys used for spark plugs and chamber walls could still be useful though.

Only for the spikes at the cathode’s end with extreme wear (I don’t know much about the DPF, but I was thinking about spikes too). The inner layers of the chamber itself needs to be beryllium (as I understand the the patent application), having a low Z (number of protons) for the photovoltaic x-ray conversion system.

[Henning]

I’m wondering whether the pressure (about 7 torr, which is 10 mbar) would be big enough, so that any pistons are reacting at all. In the focus (a micrometer across) temperature and pressure is enormous, but outside? It’s a very small mass hitting the walls at high speed. Mechanics wouldn’t do much.

[Henning]

More a dream than anything else. Deploying all this stuff in orbit is extremely expensive. The ISS costs almost as much as ITER, and it’s just a fraction of the size of the proposed space stations. The “Solar Power Array” needs to deployed in geostationary orbit (that’s 36000km away) for beaming down the energy to its base station (or maybe have several base stations and direct the beam to the closest one if you deploy in LEO).

I think DESERTEC is much more plausible, which seems to be backed by Münchener Rück (world’s largest reinsurance company).

[Henning]

Lerner wrote: Pressures won’t be very extreme–several atomospheres.

I thought it would be around 7 torr (around 10mbar) like I read in the various papers.

[Author]

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