"Fusion We Can Believe In"

CosmicLog ^ | Dec 16, 2008 | Alan Boyle

[Wonder Warthog]

Working on a shoestring budget, researchers have found no reason why a low-cost approach to nuclear fusion won't work. .... For decades, scientists have been trying to figure out how to harness the power of the nuclear reaction that sets the sun ablaze. Fusion involves smashing the nuclei of lighter elements together to produce heavier elements, plus an excess burst of energy. The sun turns hydrogen into helium. Thermonuclear bombs do something similar with different isotopes of hydrogen. .... The mainstream approaches to commercial fusion would involve heating up plasma inside a doughnut-shaped magnetic bottle known as a tokamak, or using lasers to blast tiny bits of deuterium and tritium. The former approach is being followed for the $13 billion international ITER project, and the latter would be used by multibillion-dollar experiments such as the National Ignition Facility in the U.S. or HiPER in Britain.

Then there's the $1.8 million (yes, million) project that's just been wrapped up at EMC2 Fusion Development Corp. in Santa Fe, N.M. The experiment, funded by the U.S. Navy, was aimed at verifying some interesting results that the late physicist Robert Bussard coaxed out of a high-voltage inertial electrostatic contraption known as WB-6. (The "WB" stands for Wiffle Ball, which describes the shape of the device and its magnetic field.)

An EMC2 team headed by Los Alamos researcher Richard Nebel (who's on leave from his federal lab job) picked up the baton from Bussard and tried to duplicate the results. The team has turned in its final report, and it's been double-checked by a peer-review panel, Nebel told me today. Although he couldn't go into the details, he said the verdict was positive.

[Wonder Warthog]

This is the first report I've seen on the final report on the experiments run to duplicate Dr. Bussard's experiments with WB-6. It looks like a "go" for the next step. The above is a pretty severely limited except (300 words just ain't enough, moderators).

[Wonder Warthog]

except = excerpt (I can spell, just not type!!)

[ConservativeMind]

Is this an attempt at aneutronic fusion?

[Moonman62]

Sounds like a scam to me.

[Lazamataz]

Working on a shoestring budget, researchers have found no reason why a low-cost approach to nuclear fusion won't work. ....

The sun's been doing it fer years without spending a penny!

[Wonder Warthog]

"Is this an attempt at aneutronic fusion?"

This particular experiment is not, but Bussard hoped that the "polywell" concept could reach sufficiently high energies that the aneutronic proton-boron process would be workable.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Sounds like a scam to me."

If so, then everything you hear must "sound like a scam". This is serious, peer-reviewed science, and, in fact, this report is about the final result of the peer-rev9iew process.

[Wonder Warthog]

"The sun's been doing it fer years without spending a penny! "

True, but God does things on a large scale. We need something that works in a smaller package.

[alloysteel]

Buckminster Fuller’s “buckyballs”?

[ClearCase_guy]

We haven't had an advance in arc reactor technology in 30 years. Maybe it's time.

[upchuck]

(300 words just ain't enough, moderators).

Don't feel too bad. Recently I jumped through all kind of hoops to do radical surgery on a CNN story so it would meet the posting and excerpting guidelines and still make sense.

Only to have a mod come along and excerpt it down to two sentences which destroyed the story.

I posted a reply asking why that was done but got no response. Go figure.

[Rick_Michael]

One of these days....

[Kevmo]

Thanks for posting this. BMFLR.

[HangnJudge]

The Polywell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell

[TRY ONE]

For 50 years knowledgeable scientists have been asked, “when will Fusion be viable. Here are their answers:

1970: “In about 25 years!”
1980: “In about 25 years!”
1990: “In about 25 years!”
2000: “In about 25 years!”
2008: “In about 25 years!”

[Right Wing Assault]

The above is a pretty severely limited except (300 words just ain't enough, moderators).

Don't worry about it. The excerpt is to hook the reader. The Read more at is for those who are hooked. Those who are interested shouldn't mind going to the 'trouble' of clicking the link. Those who aren't interested won't even make it through the excerpt.

If I see a topic I like, such as this, I won't bother with the excerpt. I go directly to the article. Anyway, thanks for this good post.

[HangnJudge]

Polywell in action...

[fuente]

Bingo!

[Wonder Warthog]

"2008: “In about 25 years!”"

FWIW, Dr. Bussard said nothing like that about the polywell. He was convinced that it could be done quite quickly.

[thackney]

Only to have a mod come along and excerpt it down to two sentences which destroyed the story.

I posted a reply asking why that was done but got no response. Go figure.

I've done the same and had it chopped away several times myself. Never had a real explanation or correction when I asked either.