Talk-Polywell.org

BTW, where have all of this forums AGW supporters disappeared to? I'm still here, I still tend to hold the view that the chances of catastrophic climate change as a result of CO2 emmissions is 25%. I don't buy the argument that there is conclusive evidence that the CO2 can be shown to lag the tempe...

Okay, so all that's really left to suggest AGW is a concern is the correlation with CO2 and temperature in the ice core data to suggest an amplification factor. I still don't buy the argument that CO2 can either be shown to lag or lead the temperature consistently. Since degrees celsuis and part per...

I disagree with your physics version of efficient market hypothesis: that everything worth inventing has been invented and that anything that hasn't been funded isn't worth funding. Science at the level of individual plasma devices is a very specialized area, often even fellow plasma physicists don'...

The bootstrap current is a real phenomenon and is generated by pressure gradients in the plasma. There are lots of papers written on Bootstrap current, I believe the first people to theorise its existence were Howard Wilson and Jack O Connor.

I think the chances of getting current drive working (eventually) are higher than 20%. The biggest problem I can think of is control of burning plasmas, unlike non-burning plasmas, in a burning plasma you have a wildcard heat source you can't control that in many cases will exhibit positve feedback ...

Oh, I calculated it simply by using the field of 5.3T to calculate the energy density and then multiplying it by the plasma volume. 5.3^2/2(4*pi*10^-7) * 850 = 9.5GJ But maybe the blanket, shielding materials and coolant pipes are so thick that the volume the magnetic field exists over is 4 times la...

Well the coils used in JET were copper as they were cheaper then superconductors, whereas the coils in a fusion power plant will be super conducting. I realise you still have to put in energy to keep them refrigerated but I believe the numbers have been done and its condsiderably less than the fusi...

100k a year I believe.


http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/misc/NIAC_ROI.pdf

I think it deserves more.

In terms of producing net energy, I think ITER or DEMO will get there eventually (JET got pretty close) Depends on how you juggle and spin the numbers; best JET DT pulse; energy into plasma = 22MJ energy out of plasma = 18MJ but energy required to form the magnetic field = 1GJ total efficiency = 2%...

Well in terms of achieving ignition, if we are to believe the ICF people, then the national ignition facility will get there in a few years. (And then ofcourse there's the sun and H-bombs) But neither approach will produce net plug to socket electricity. In terms of producing net energy, I think ITE...

What method has he used to meassure these MegaTesla field that exist spatially over micrometres for nanosecond durations? Or are they simply inferred by the neutron count?

I think there's a lot more money going into pure research and peaceful industrial research financed by corporations now then ever before, but I guess there still an awfully large research budget from the military. An unlimited source of money and the ability to concentrate large quantities of wealth...

Well the hardware is certainly cheaper. On another note, if the collective expansion speed of the plasmoid is considerably slower than the thermal velocities of the plasma confined inside it then that would relax the densities required as the confinement time would be larger than that of an explodi...

Well the hardware is certainly cheaper. On another note, if the collective expansion speed of the plasmoid is considerably slower than the thermal velocities of the plasma confined inside it then that would relax the densities required as the confinement time would be larger than that of an explodin...

After that slight detour, to get back on the topic of Focus Fusion. Art, you mentioned the repulsive hoop force preventing the plasmoid in focus fusion from being confined. But prior to the formation of the plasmoid a Z-pinch force causes the plasma to centrally accelerate inward. Could it be that t...