Fusion energy

The American Thinker ^ | June 12, 2009 | M. Simon

[Scanian]

There are a lot of fusion experiments going on in the world that don't get much publicity. Among these is Polywell Fusion. All you see in the papers is the billions spent on ITER or the billions spent on Laser Fusion. Small projects like Polywell where the spending is in millions and where the prospects for viability are near near term (years vs decades) don't seem to attract much attention from the giants of the media.

I have been studying the Polywell Fusion Reactor intensively since November of 2006 when I first saw a video of Robert Bussard, the inventor of the Polywell Fusion Reactor, giving a talk to Google. The talk is about an hour and a half long and is full of physics, engineering technical details, and prospects for the future if the device works. However, there is a much shorter video done by Daily Kos poster Roger Fox which gives a good overview of the technology. The video is not technically correct in every detail but it does give a good look for those of you short on physics, math, and engineering. As you can see this project transcends politics. I'm from the right side of the political spectrum with a rather libertarian orientation. Roger of course is from the left. Roger and I may disagree on many things but Polywell is not one of them.

There are also other resources out there. Tom Ligon, a noted science fiction author, who worked with Dr. Bussard wrote a piece for Analog Science Fiction magazine on the Polywell reactor which you can access here. Tom also did a series of videos about Polywell and his work with Dr. Bussard. You can also visit my IEC Fusion Technology blog which has news, technical discussions, and numerous useful links

[Pontiac]

Bump for later

[bruinbirdman]

"So there you have it. At a cost of a few millions and about two more years of research or less we will know if we can use this method to power our civilization for the next billion years. And not just an Earth civilization. A multi-planet civilization. Exciting times."

"If it works."

yitbos

[Bender2]

Ditto

[Spktyr]

Polywell is the only man-initiated fusion method that’s gone over break even at this point. It *does* work, the only issues left are engineering, not physics.

[Rammer]

Bookmark

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

the only issues left are engineering economics, not physics.

[steveyp]

20y ago this engineer heard as a student fusion was 30y away.

One real product of fusion power is this magic fusion number: p=30. It is the one constant, seemlingly.

Commercial Fusion Power Date = Today() + p

[ClearCase_guy]

If the US government is going to toss around trillions of dollars, then I think tossing a few hundred billion at Fusion would seem to make as much sense as anything else.

[xcamel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04O8WjtLnxg

[hershey]

It won’t free us from the maniacal grip of the lunatics in the Middle East. PC Liberals will make sure Muslims get a big cut or total control. The alternative, that Arabs pound sand and have nothing to sell but rugs, is unthinkable.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Ping.

[ShadowAce]

[SC DOC]

While watching a presentation on this fusion technique, I ran across another absolutely fascinating energy discussion on the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor, which is a fission reactor that was developed at Oak Ridge National Labs in the 50's, but never caught on commercially. It has many advantages over conventional nuclear power plants, including cost, safety, size, availability of fuel, minimal nuclear waste, etc.

[sionnsar]

ping

[NicknamedBob]

"It won’t free us from the maniacal grip of the lunatics in the Middle East. PC Liberals will make sure Muslims get a big cut or total control."

Not gonna happen that way. This technology is too simple and too straightforward to be monopolized by anyone.

That includes your own friendly tyrannical government.

People are building these large vacuum tubes in their basements. Without a nuclear signature until it's actually fusing, it's hard to shut down backyard research.

One of the things we forget is that in the search for a "break-even" point, we're looking for something that outputs more energy than it takes in.

How about being willing to settle for something that produces one heck of a lot of heat for a modest investment in electricity and contraptioneering?

Most of the energy we consume at my compound is heat, usually from electricity. I'd sure like to have a tame fusion polywell water heater doing that job for me.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SC DOC.

Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor

Google

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks NicknamedBob!

[SunkenCiv]

---

Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking by Charles Seife

---

[Straight Vermonter]

Ping