[Alex Pollard]

Francisl wrote: Magnetic behavior discovery could advance nuclear fusion

The article quotes a scientist:

“Essentially, what we found is a completely new magnetic reconnection mechanism,” Thomas said

“Magnetic reconnection” is fictional concept invented to explain solar flares without acknowledging the large-scale role of electric currents. I wouldn’t pay any attention to their interpretation of this discovery.

[Alex Pollard]

zapkitty wrote:

As for using D-T and other neutronic fuels?

Also tritium is much more costly than the common isotopes of boron and hydrogen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium#Production_history

“225 kg (496 lb) of tritium has been produced in the United States since 1955. Since it continually decays into helium-3, the total amount remaining was about 75 kg (165 lb) at the time of the report.”

This is a key advantage of FF over almost all other concepts. There is no need to “breed” the fuel. Quite frankly ITER is pie in the sky on this count alone.

[Alex Pollard]

Di Vita, what do you make of Hannes Alfvén’s Nobel acceptance speech, repudiating magnetohydrodynamics wherein magnetic fields are assumed to be “frozen” into plasma?

[Alex Pollard]

Lerner wrote:
For the generator, I think that solid electrodes are possible. Cooling rates of 1 kW/cm^2 are considered achievable today. At 3500 K, blackbody radiation would be at that level, so you could keep electrodes much cooler, say around 1100 K. If I have done the calculations right—and I invite you to do them yourselves–neither conduction nor convection with any reasonable internal gas velocities can cool the gas anywhere near as fast as radiation, so they can be ignored.

This presentation casts doubt on aspects of Black Body theory.

[Alex Pollard]

Agree with everything above about the sheer implausibility of General Fusion’s timetable, and quite frankly, the whole concept.

Bezos has a lot of cash but that says nothing about his investment skills.

It is ironic that someone who is blowing a huge stock bubble

http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2011/04/lets-talk-about-real-bubble-amzn.html

is unable to recognise when an outfit he invests in is blowing smoke.

It is really is tragic that our financial system allocates so much capital to fraudsters, who then squander it.

[Alex Pollard]

These findings should have significant implications for fusion research and the physics of magnetic reconnection.

Doesn’t magnetic reconnection stem from mistaken attempts to explain solar flares without acknowledging the electric currents that cause them?

http://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=22&start=0

Doesn’t inspire any confidence that Tri Alpha are on the right track.

[Alex Pollard]

Maybe members of the Focus Fusion Society could be “Member”, and anyone else who has made a post “Contributor”?

[Alex Pollard]

Phil’s Dad wrote:

1) Plastics.
2) Still need a portable fuel for long range light vehicles if EEStor don’t work.
3) # million cars to refit or replace.

I buy 3 in the short term but there are a lot of alternatives to ultra-capacitors so not 2.

Your best argument is 1. I have long held the belief that plastics are more valuable than gold. We will look back on depletion of oil reserves with horror. We did WHAT with it?

I am with Breakable on this one. Cost savings aside we are surely looking to substitute hydrocarbon burning, not augment it.

Yes, we will probably have to resort to using coal to make petrochemicals.

[Alex Pollard]

texaslabrat wrote:
I have a feeling Madoff may have a cellmate soon…

Yeah I noticed that but assumed they meant catalyst, not fuel, but then again, what kind of organisation would get something that fundamental wrong? We don’t have all that much information to judge them by, so people will understandably try to read between the lines.

[Alex Pollard]

BlackLight Power say they are close to commercialisation. See their press release dated 08/12/09.

I can’t provide a link because this forum has an issue with posts containing spaces ie “% 20”.

I would be interested to see a full EROEI (Energy Return On Energy Invested) analysis for BlackLight Power and Focus Fusion.

Each has input fuels, which must be refined to some extent, but at what cost compared to the energy output? BLP claims a 200 fold energy return.

There are of course also capital costs in creating reaction chambers, these costs would be amortised over time but what about depreciation costs, as reaction chambers may wear out etc…

One factor with regard to BLP would be the capacity to boil water for steam turbines. Heat engines operate most efficiently at higher temperatures relative to the heat sink (whatever the waste heat is dumped into eg the atmosphere). What is the theoretical maximum temperature that can be obtained in the BLP process? Do the reactants catalyse at high temperatures used in steam turbines eg 600 degrees Celsius?

BLP, if it is for real, has the advantage of potentially being plugged into existing coal-fired steam turbines. Turbines may only be 42% efficient, but big power companies would find this convenient and are probably used to thinking in terms of large-scale projects.

Whereas deployment of multiple FF reactors locally throughout cities would probably be done by the competitors to existing large power distributors and generators.

[Alex Pollard]

Rematog wrote: Several BIG reasons for AC power.

Transformers. They ONLY work for AC power. Very hard (therefore expensive) to raise or lower DC voltage. So if you have a, say 100,000 volt DC transmission line, how do you get it down to a usable household voltage.

Solid-state semiconductor DC transformers are now available, correct? Also, why would there be 100,000 volt DC transmission lines if DC power users have local decentralised FF reactors?

Rematog wrote:

Motors. AC motors have no brushes to wear out. AC is much more convenient for making things turn, like say a refrigerator’s compressor, or the air conditioner’s compressor.

Please correct me if I my knowledge is lacking: Yes, AC is easier but control circuits can commutate a motor using DC input. The electronics is more complicated but the result is can be more efficient and less electrically noisy during startup?

Due to there being few household devices with electric motors vs devices that transform to DC 24/7, I think using a local DC supply could make more sense.

Rematog wrote:

Lighting. While conventional light bulbs will work fine on DC, fluorescent bulbs use ballasts to make the voltage they need to run. Guess you could use LED based lights, but those are not yet commercial.

LED will be commercial in due course.

Rematog wrote:

And the Biggest reason… Trillions of dollars in both utility infrastructure and industrial, commercial and residential equipment designed for good old 60 hz.

Rematog

I can’t argue with that. New standards generally have to be an order of magnitude better than what they replace to take hold: LPs vs CDs, Video tapes vs DVDs, etc…

Would DC be that much better than AC from a user’s point of view, that is the question…..

[Alex Pollard]

Brian H wrote: I also wonder about losses in long-distance DC transmission; it was my understanding that they are much higher with DC. But Maihem says not.

Focus Fusion shouldn’t require long-distance transmission. DC power users would have a local FF reactor.

[Alex Pollard]

Folks, it is very easy to create a new thread rather than go way off-topic.

[Alex Pollard]

I wrote some comments on this proposed fusion technique here

https://focusfusion.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/175/

It sounds awfully difficult.

[Alex Pollard]

Great post. I have thought that with deployment domestic solar panels there should be standardised DC voltages for household appliances. Thinking about it, it is crazy to have almost every appliance require its own little transformer. If you have tried traveling with a laptop, video camera, digital camera, and mobile phone you will know what a hassle it can be.

One way to get standardisation would be to utilise the USB standard. Many small appliances connect to a USB port and recharge off it. Small appliances could standardise on the USB voltage. A larger voltage would be needed for more energy hungry non-recharging appliances.

DC power could also reduce the problem of devices draining power in stand-by mode as they would not need to transform AC power 24/7.

[Author]

Posts