Talk-Polywell.org

Yes, there are upcoming lasers that boast similar intensity and better repetition rates, but there had to be steps before then. You know, now that I think about it, I think this is why I stopped visiting this forum previously. It's quite hypocritical to spout ignorant statements while whining about ...

Yes, the tokamaks beat them a long time ago.. that's why most funding goes into the tokamak route. >NIF is device for nuclear weapons research. That is all it can do and ever will. Everything else is just PR to distract the public from the fact that this is nothing but a giant waste of taxpayer mone...

NIF is no less "real" than Polywell, Helion, etc. Let's not devolve into the same bickering types that argue over funding because let's face it, that's not going to go through well. We should try to be glad for its success (in funding, and matching the current simulations) instead of trying to circl...

On the bright side, at least it helps with laser technology development and research..

It's okay to start with simplifications, as long as you remember that simplifications come with certain assumptions that will have to be changed as you get more computing power. Go with the 1/48 model, ignore the cusps for now, and maybe use periodic boundary conditions. The more complications you a...

>The point being that the modeling may be useful for predicting, and useful for priority assignment, but it is not infallable yet. Advances are being made in number crunching and precision and perhaps even applicable assumptions. But there is still a lot of uncertainties in complex systems like plas...

>I concede computer modeling is advancing and that certain insights may be gained, especially with focus on the simplest levels or focused on a small area within the overall plasma. My point is that even with profoundly capable researchers at the best and best equipped computational labs (like MIT) ...

Also, Birdsall and Langdon is a classic, but it's pretty old. Anyone looking to try their hand ought to look into Computational Plasma Physics by T.Tajima. It's more recent, more detailed, but also doesn't assume a specific language. My advice would be to thumb through it somewhat (assuming some pla...

>Perhaps some intermediate indication of trends might be implied, but again only as they compared to experiment, or as used to design experiments to get answers. The modeling itself does not give the answers. Dan, you're misunderstanding the point of most simulations. Sure, the end goal of simulatio...

It's not just the private companies you mentioned. There were also university and national lab research teams that worked on spheromaks, FRCs, and other compact toroids. I think two of the main ones have lost funding in the last couple of years (ie. University of Washington's Redmond lab.. which spa...

Yep. From what I was told, they have done the initial testings with their 18 piston proto-type and that's all fine and dandy (and simulations indicate that the 180 piston version will be more uniform). What they are having trouble with is stability, but the nice thing is that there are other researc...

I thought the point of the TED talks was to induce enthusiasm in potential investors. You talk about the thing you're doing, and basically sell yourself and your product. Interested investors can then contact you afterwards.. no?

See, this is why I think General Fusion should always be on the list of the speculatory winners. They are building on top of research that has been done by multiple university groups, multiple national lab groups, and a smattering of private labs. Their idea on how to collapse the conducting shell i...

Ah, okay, I agree then. I also think it's stupid to speculate when most of the non-tokamak scientists are keeping the information confined within the subcommunity.

Yes.. that was my point. It's stupid to speculate on "what we don't know that we don't know". Unless you meant something else in that first part. i think you're the only one doing any speculation here. the other dude was just saying that there's a lot of stuff that we dont know that we dont know. t...