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DaveMart,

That the size of the polygon electrostatic/magnet container, you have to include the walls of the vacuum or support structure. Removing everything but the actual reactor device its self and a DPF fusion reactor is the size of a coffee can (at least that what the people of this site claim). Still I would love to see any aneutronic fusion work.

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DaveMart, assuming both technologies actually prove or are made feasible, DPF fusion has several advatages: a DPF could be much smaller… well at least ligher at anywhere beteen ~5-30m long, but only ~2m wide at the reactor and only ~.3m wide at the decelerator ends, Bussard’s inertial confined reactor would be about the size of a 50MW light water fission reactor or very roughly 10m by 20m cylinder (not including sheilding or steam turbines). Bussard’s ICR relies on conventional steam carnot cycle cooling and power generation which is far less efficient (only 30-40%) then what DPF fusion claims with direct linear decelerators of 60-80%, also steam turbines are claimed to be more expensive then linear decelerators. Price tag are claimed to be $.5M for a DPF fusion plant at 5MW and $200M for a 50MW Bussard’s ICR. Bussard’s ICR has the advantage that it is up-scalable with power outputs anywhere beyond 50MW (but not smaller as the reactor would end up energy negative) this is not much of a advantage as you can just make a array of DPF fusion reactors to compensate. Bussard’s ICR also has the advantage that it is much closer to reality if the data Bussard presented is true: so of both of these technologies DPF fusion is theoretically better, but Bussard’s ICR is more likely.

Refreance: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606

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I would not say it fantastic news. No my rejection of joy is not because this fusion technique has several inferior point to what DPF fusion could be, but because Dr. Bussard is in a jam for funding and is so close to proving (or disproving) a working fusion reactor, so close yet so far, $200 million so far, god why is the world so unfair?

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Well lets all remember that politicians aren

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And hey fusion powered desalination could definitely help with reforestation and de-desertification. Look at it like this, there are so many ways extremely cheap non-polluting energy could help that I’m sure we all could not even think of them now.

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Duke Leto wrote: Oh, I haven’t forgotten Peak Oil. That’s why my other thread was on the feasibility of a scaled down version of the device to serve as the power plant of an electric car. Preferably one where both the device and electric motor could fit neatly into the volume where the combustion engine used to be in an existing car.

I doubt it, your going to need at least a meter of shielding around the reactor because of the hard x-rays, gamma rays and even small amounts of neutronicity, not to mention the length of the decelerator and mass of the giant capacitors. It will never be small enough to fit on a car, not with DPF fusion that is. Let just try to stay reasonable and assume that even if they pull it off its going to have limitations (at least the limitations that they have implied, if not more)

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First of all, what does this have to do with fusion? Second of all the mechanism of action is highly questionable: as it releases bullets (which are round balls and have very poor aerodynamic properties thus greatly limiting range) the spinner will slow down very rapidly so it needs a great amount of power to spin up and keep firing, even worse to shot off rounds at such high speeds its got to be spinning with the edges moving at supersonic speeds, that going to make it as loud as #$%^, it going to sound something like 10^3 saw mill blades all going off at once! It looks like an ingenious idea at first glace but its actually very stupid.

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I don

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Well the waste heat from a DPF fusion reactor could be used, and I disagree about the efficiency of turning electricity into heat, all you need is a long metal wire as a resistor, also in flash distillation requires electricty to power the pumps to keep the pressure low. Also a desalination plant would produce salts, minerals, and even organics such as carbon dioxide and plankton (latent in the sea water) which could be extracted and turned into petroleum. I figure that the water produced could go into making farm land out of desert, won

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It is good that a estimated 60-70% of the energy will be converted into electricity, that much better then power plants limited to carnot cycles (~50% at best), but still that 30-40% of heat, how will a DPF fusion reactor be cooled? Could it run a steam/stirling carnot cycle on the waste heat to produce even more electricity? What would be the coolant (air or water?) and would it be closed or open cycle?

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If a DPF fusion world is possible and becomes so, there will be no use for coal in the long term other then to make plastics and composites, in the short term it would be needed to phasing out coal produce electricity and making oil to replace over-demand/under-production of oil. Global warming is a real concern but don’t forget Peak Oil which is likely going to hit harder and much faster then global warming.

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Boron is not scarce

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Also consider the size of the shielding needed, cooling systems, the decelerators/linear generators and the giant capacitors and high-powered electronics needed to run the things. Even if the reactor it self

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Optimism is no indicator of success. The reference are awful, tertiary references in most cases, even web forums! I was surprised they did not cite wikipeida at least they had that much sense. Unfortunately there is so little information presented about how the EST Spheromak works that there is nothing to work with for discussing.

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Sounds dubious, even more so then DPFF, and did you check the references?

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