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Above: a homemade version of the Polywell nuclear fusion reactorPosted on 03/31/2015 7:16:11 PM PDT by ckilmer
Robert Bussard, one of the giants of the field, claimed to his dying day he had cracked the problem
Above: a homemade version of the Polywell nuclear fusion reactor
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Not many people have heard of Robert Bussard, but he was one of the giants of nuclear fusion research. But if an engineering solution for viable small, household size nuclear fusion reactors is ever discovered, they will almost certainly be largely based on Bussard’s work.
Bussard’s focus was on a field of Nuclear fusion research known as electrostatic confinement. Unlike the better known magnetic bottle reactors, such as the $20 billion ITER project, electrostatic confinement can be applied to fusion plasmas which are the size of a small glass fish tank.
Electrostatic confinement has been well known since the 1930s. Small electrostatic nuclear fusion devices are sold commercially – as neutron sources. A small nuclear fusion reactor is an incredibly convenient way to produce a dense stream of neutron radiation, because as soon as you switch off the power, the plasma cools, and the radiation stops.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_generator
The problem is nobody has figured out how to extract more energy out of an electrostatic fusor, than you put into it. There is a long list of problems to be solved. One of the big problems with viable nuclear fusion is keeping the plasma hot enough – when you heat something to millions of degrees, it really wants to shed some of its heat. In electrostatic confinement systems, the violent acceleration / deceleration, as charged plasma particles bounce off the high intensity electric fields, causes a significant cooling of the core. There are also problems with the electrodes – keeping an electrode from melting, when it is in close contact with a superheated gas, is a significant engineering challenge.
Bussard at the end of his life, claimed to have solved these problems. He built a small prototype using a grant from the US Navy. Right up to his dying day, he was trying to raise funds, to build a full scale prototype, of his Polywell nuclear fusion reactor design.
The late physicist Robert Bussard worked for decades to try to show Polywell fusion could work, using a variety of Wiffle-Ball configurations. Just before his death in 2007, he claimed that he was getting close to solving the challenge with his WB-6 device.
After Bussard passed away, other researchers picked up the baton at EMC2 Fusion in New Mexico and continued building test devices. Most recently, Park and his colleagues used a redesigned Wiffle-Ball test device in a San Diego lab to show the Navy that their configuration could enhance plasma confinement even under incredibly high pressure — pressure levels that could not be achieved by, say, the ITER reactor.
Bussard’s prototype might not have worked. However Bussard was an extremely credible fusion researcher – unlike some rather dodgy characters in the “bubble” fusion field, Bussard really might have made that crucial breakthrough. When you consider the eye watering sums which are wasted on renewables, such as the huge loss sustained by the Federal Government when Solyndra collapsed, it really seems a shame that Bussard never got a chance to take the final step, to realise his dream of seeing his ideas tested in a full scale prototype.
More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Bussard
The only way the pubbies can regain the momentum is to create a civilization agenda of their own that's even more dynamic than that of the dems.
What that entails is investing in the R&D for msr thorium reactors and even more esoteric polywell fusion reactors.
The goal is to collapse the cost of electricity to 1/10th the cost of current cheapest coal and create energy sources that are abundant for many millenium.
Energy sources that are so cheap that for instance they'll make it economically viable to bring fresh water to deserts for desert farming and thereby turn first america's deserts green and double the habitable size of the USA and then turn the world's deserts green and double the size of the habitable earth.
The path to the deserts of mars leads through the deserts of the earth.
Mr. Coffee Fusion.
Nowhere in your plan is there massive EBT payouts.
Getting close to solving and solving are two different things.
DARPA claims they’re having some success but they didn’t say what that means and they’d have to kill me if they did.
Here’s a list of possible meanings for the acronym EBT. Which one works for you.
http://www.acronymfinder.com/EBT.html
Mr. Coffee Fusion.
...........
That design is probably a little too esoteric. However, it doesn’t look like its too expensive for hobbyists to play with.
he claimed that he was getting close to solving the challenge
Getting close to solving and solving are two different things.
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True. But the problem were solved the world would be a very very different place. The risk reward is very promising.
Creating problems is a task all in federal gov’t WILL NOT WASTE..
They excel at creating problems that don’t exist for them to try to solve themselves..
AND by trying to solve them create even bigger problems..
which they blame on republicans..
AND they are CORRECT... Obama’s administration would wither and die were it not
for John Boehner and Mitch McConnell financing him..
You know.............. ON PURPOSE..
The MyT enegine would solve energy problems from other end were it developed and used..
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Massive_Yet_Tiny_%28MYT%29_Engine
Cancer cure is just around the corner.
Cold fusion is just around the corner.
Middle class thanking Obamacare is just around the corner.
Peak oil is just around the corner.
A younger, more beautiful replacement for the wife is just around the corner..
Yeah right....keep believing the crapola.
I’d also heard of Bussard from Larry Niven’s sci fi novels, where he refrerred to the Bussard ramjet as a means of propulsion.
The bussard design is the second design that I’ve heard about from the great days of nuclear power that was killed. The first one is the msr lftr reactors that alvin weinberg invented and ran in the late 60’s. the fantastic thing is that he also held the patents on the light water reactor as well as the first patents on the msr lftr designs. He said that the molten salt designs were many time safer/cheaper/better than the light water designs. he was so adament about it — he was fired from his position at the head of oak ridge laboratories.
You plan includes no increases in gimmies, man. What about the gimmies?
(Yes, I am just teasing you)
Attach a C-Note to your next set of revisions and we’ll talk.
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