Talk-Polywell.org

Interesting. Could this be interpreted as a refinement of the "elephant" idea?

I think most of the serious people have left for greener pastures.

So, near term: LPPFusion (dense plasma focus) - Experiments planned this year, hopefully starting in May. Possibly hydrogen-boron experiments by late summer. Scientific feasibility possibly demonstrated this year...or not. LPPFusion's small team is slightly larger than when they started experiments ...

It was just a joke, obviously, a throwaway example of a fusion "concept" someone might dream up but never realistically implement. I found the post . The context was Chris's list of fusion technologies, and particularly what sort of concepts should be excluded from the list: Well, I think someone sh...

Sometime, when I find the time, I'll have to flesh out the elephant & deuterium balloon concept. I believe it was ChrisMB's concept initially, but since he didn't bother to do the math and engineering, it's up to someone else to pick up where he left off. Right now I'm weighing the costs and benefit...

I think the fact that some other fusion researcher thought of it first shows it's an idea that is (or was) worth trying out. I'd be interested in seeing what the actual experimental results were, and what the rationale was for not pursuing it further. There's a difference between "We already tried t...

The year is 2021. ITER assembly is 70-75% complete. This year begins assembly of the vacuum vessel, with first plasma expected within five years. So far all ITER member nations appear committed to the project, and funding seems secure. Still time for a dark horse to suddenly steal ITER's thunder, bu...

LPPFusion posted their first reports of 2021 on March 4 and 9 here and here . In sum, work is ongoing on a new set of switches (already arrived) and a new beryllium anode (expected to arrive April 12), with a new round of experiments expected to begin around May 1. If the problems with current oscil...

The DOE-FES has announced its 2019 INFUSE awards, the first awards since the program was announced this year. These awards allow the use of National Laboratory facilities to private companies. For 2019 twelve awards were made to the following six companies: Advanced Conductor Technologies Commonweal...

Perhaps I should have noted that their website talks about their "energy solution for 2027". Specific year, but no explanation of what the milestone is. Now that the conference is over, Renaissance Fusion has revealed the names of exactly one member of the team: Francesco Volpe, "Founder". He has a ...

The Fusion Industry Association has added another startup to its list of members: Renaissance Fusion. The company claims to be the first fusion startup based in continental Europe, as well as the first with a stellarator-based design. They're based in Granada, Spain, according to their Twitter accou...

Great news! I've been waiting for this moment for years.

Beryllium electrodes - check
Hydrogen-boron fill gas - closer than ever before
Net energy gain - ?

The latest update: https://www.facebook.com/LPPFusion/photos/a.626081134137750/2251100008302513/ With the upgrade to beryllium electrodes, FF-1 has been rechristened FF-2B ("Focus Fusion 2B"), with the "B" referring doubly to beryllium and boron. I assume this means resumption of experiments is not ...

I wonder what the relative difficulty/cost of getting fusion neutrons from a Z-pinch machine is compared to getting them from a Hirsch-Farnsworth fusor. Is there any other confinement concept for which the barrier to entry is as low (or nearly so) as the fusor? (An accelerator, perhaps, but that's n...

China already has the EAST tokamak and the ShenGuang-III laser facility, but I'm not aware of much research going on into alternative confinement concepts. This would put China at a disadvantage if one of the private fusion efforts succeeded before ITER or NIF, especially since private companies are...