Talk-Polywell.org

Art, I saw a report somewhere (can't remember from whom it was right now) calculating the energies transfer. As I recall, most of the transfer occurs within the dense region, where the protons heat the boron, which in turn heat the electrons. The electron energy is then removed from the machine, and...

Oh yeah, I agree it is important and a big deal for the navy. That is what I said after all! I am not quite sure how large a ship has to be to acommodate an polywell that produces enough power. One also must not forget that you need specialists to operate this thing. This is expensive and might not...

Rick Nebel as quoted is placing his money on keeping the electron temperature low, but he doesn't mention the effect that has on the collisional power loss from the ions. Shouldn't that be relatively small? How much extra collisional energy can a giant ion lose to a little tiny electron? How easy i...

I don't think it's quite honest to present the calculation like that without even mentioning the various ways in which EMC2 claims bremsstrahlung can be mitigated. You may assume, if you like, that the plasma is completely thermal, with equal electron and ion temperatures in the core and a 1:1 rati...

Make your voice heard! I can't believe that there are only 20 people who care what this machine is going to be called. I know there are a multitude of silent "Lurkers" with repressed opinions out there. It's time to make your voice heard!Bill Flint I like BFR, and I can easily say it as the Beefer ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eestor They are either going to be very rich or look very foolish. The Eestor and the ZENN have very interesting technologies. ZENN are practically my neighbors! A storage unit with such performances (even one tenth of what they claim) would be a game changing device. I...

Energy is such a national security issue that I can't imagine the Navy bottling it up. It makes no sense. I do not think the Navy can keep it under cover now. But what can happen is that the design will be geared toward a ship or submarine power system, making it not perfectly applicable for commer...

Question 2: In the pB11 reaction, the 3 He4 nuclei leave the central containment area at a fairly high (3+Mev and 2+Mev) Is the magnetic fields on the coils enough to deflect them just enough so they don't hit the coils on their way to the outer power generation grid? The He4 particles hitting the ...

I don't know if you caught the de-icing bit. With variable voltage constant current operation you can keep the lines warm enough to prevent ice formation. Something you can't do with AC which are constant voltage variable current. This is a +/- 200KV system. However a 2 MV to 200 KV switcher is not...

Plant cost $500 per KW. Including shielding etc. Simon, since the fusion reactors fuel cost is negligible, a higher cost of the plant still would be competitive. Even when assuming a carbon fuel cost of $0.01/Kw-Hr today (I think it is currently more then that), cost going up at 6% per year over a ...

Nice, Simon. That's WB-100 size ... but we'd need six of them and how much per unit for a bulk purchase? I have seen a superconductor study showing the current cost for superconductor is around $100 per 10KA*m. Just as a guess, this should make it $200K per coils for the superconducting material al...

I've had some contact with Mr. Pickens in the past. In the mid 80s, Phillips Petroleum was making some investments in fusion. Mr. Pickens, who is a corporate raider, decided that they had two much cash on hand and that their assets were larger than their stock price. Consequently, he tried to make ...

[quote="rcain] presumably, we should expect a big shock wave at or around Q=1? Dr Bussard patents define ignition at Q=infinite (this would be a self sustaining reaction leading to a big boom). Q=1 is when as much fusion power is produced as is put in to drive the reactor (net zero), thus nothing sp...

I don't see how, and neither did Bussard (who recommended a prize model for fusion). In fact, I seem to recall that Dr. Nebel was eager to get away from the public purse as soon as possible; Bussard mentioned that something like 30-40% of the money they got ended up spent on overhead. It would be d...

200 mil of pure R&D is not exactly something you can find easily. Private corporations are interested in making money, not R&D. If you had $200M you could spare right now would you fund it? If it were the sum of your assets? If it were half? Sure I would. But this would be in tranches, not all at o...