Cold Fusion Ping!.......
His difficulty appears to be in obtaining finance. The US gov. shut him out.
Ah, the problem has been described so eloquently.
ping
Why wouldn’t Bill Gates just write this guy a check? He could double the funding and do more good than his foundations ever could. I’m suspicious of this - it sounds a bit too rosy.
Bookmark for later reading.
Energy device in funding limbo for two decades
Okay, work on it from a different end - develop it as a propulsion system for NASA - a “fast” bus to Mars or the Moon.
It not like NASA doesn’t have have plenty of money..
Bussard Ramjet bump.
(Now let’s see who get’s the reference)......
Question for the thread..anyone on here an engineer with more than a basic knowledge of nuclear power plants and electrical transmission lines..I have a few questions..please Freepmail me..thanks..
Why is my BS meter jumping off the scale?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1805581/posts
Robert Bussard - fusion lecture http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606
pdf - http://www.askmar.com/ConferenceNotes/2006-9%20IAC%20Paper.pdf
D-T fusion, the easiest kind of fusion to do, always results in a He + n, with the neutron always very high energy.
D + D + D -> He + p + n (overall reaction) fusion is almost as easy as D+T, and has cheaper and easier to obtain fuel, but it still produces a great deal of neutron radiation.
There are several neutron-free reactions. He3 + D is a popular one, but He3 is very hard to obtain on earth, and it is difficult to avoid D+D reactions.
( p + B11 -> 3 He ) and ( p + Li6 -> He + He3 ) fusion are nice concepts, but they have some drawbacks that Bussard glosses over:
1) You will probably also get He + B11 -> N14 + n reactions
2) isotopic impurities in the fuel (B10, D) will have neutron producing reactions.
3) about 0.2% of the reactions will produce high energy gamma rays.
4) Vacuum impurities (O2, N2) will also result in neutron producing reactions.
Tokamaks, in theory, can clearly be built that could achieve breakeven. However, it does not appear that they could ever be cost-competitive with fission power.
If Bussard’s latest work can be scaled up effectively and combined with superconducting magnets, then it would have a real chance of producing electricity cheaper than fission or coal, and in a much shorter timeframe than any tokamak.
Those who are believers in Bussard should remember the following historical fact, however:
Bussard founded Inesco, a private firm funded in part by Penthouse Magazine publisher Bob Guccione. Inesco set out to build small power-producing Tokamak fusion reactors called Riggatrons using methods developed from the MIT Alcator research tokamaks. The method they were trying to use in order to initiate fusion proved vastly more difficult to achieve than they had anticipated and Inesco eventually shut down when its funds ran out.
So remember, Bussard has a history of underestimating engineering problems and burning through venture capital following his dreams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bussard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_electrostatic_confinement
Bussard’s method is highly promising and has created fusion. It is not a scam. It hasn’t produced a functioning fusion reactor yet, something it shares with every other fusion research project.
It may or may not be the way forward for fusion, but Govt funding often goes to sink projects at the behest of special interest groups, rather than to the best achievers. I can believe this guy’s been shut out.
I had dinner with him in 1982. He had a rep as a maverick, creative genius, and a bit of a huckster. He always seemed to be trying to parlay political contacts and campaign contributions into govt. funding. He’s just the kind of arrogant, contankerous contractor who loses his funding and then complains that the federal weenies are trying to suppress his breakthrough technology. That said, I think his approach to fusion should be thoroughly investigated. There may be a pony in that pile somewhere. BTW, I was the guy who proposed building a mini-Orion ship propelled by Californium bombs. The AF liked antimatter propulsion better.
Someone will eventually fund him the few million he needs, and we’ll see if there’s something to his idea. I thought he was going to release the info he had available as well...that would give more reassurance to those interested...?
Could cold fusion really work?
Neoseeker | May 9th, 2007 | J. Micah Grunert
Posted on 05/09/2007 7:22:53 PM EDT by saganite
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1831000/posts