Search found 145 matches

by TheRadicalModerate
Tue May 21, 2013 8:13 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: Check it OUT! Fusion Family Tree...
Replies: 10
Views: 8029

Re: Check it OUT! Fusion Family Tree...

You need the whole magnetized target fusion family: MagLIF (Z-pinch liner implosion plus laser pre-heating of target in an axial B-field) General Fusion (colliding spheromaks+delightful steampunk--a variant of LINUS) Helion (colliding FRCs with liner implosion) Slough's fusion-driven rocket (single ...
by TheRadicalModerate
Thu May 16, 2013 5:56 pm
Forum: News
Topic: More Helion Energy news....
Replies: 359
Views: 283446

Re: More Helion Energy news....

Does anybody understand the purpose behind the byzantine relationship between Slough, Helion, MSNW, and U-Dub? I assume that there's some sort of funding/intellectual property accounting game going on here, but the whole thing is kinda hinky. I initially thought that it was as simple as MSNW does pr...
by TheRadicalModerate
Wed Apr 17, 2013 7:19 pm
Forum: News
Topic: John Slough gets NIAC PhaseII award!
Replies: 64
Views: 29489

Re: John Slough gets NIAC PhaseII award!

I've fallen and I can't get up trying to figure out how they're crushing the rings around the FRC plasmoid. In a Z-Pinch, you'd do this by running current axially through the cylinder, but the rings can't conduct current axially, since they're floating in a vacuum. Can somebody help me out here?
by TheRadicalModerate
Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:21 am
Forum: News
Topic: Ignition Failed
Replies: 5
Views: 4671

Re: Ignition Failed

Is there a reason (other than bureaucratic inertia, if you'll pardon the expression under the circumstances) that NIF isn't fooling around with fast ignition?

It'll be interesting to see what comes out of Sandia's MagLIF experiment later on this year. That one looks promising, unlike NIF.
by TheRadicalModerate
Sun Mar 31, 2013 4:24 am
Forum: Theory
Topic: Anyone have a better explaination for Magnetic Mirrors?
Replies: 20
Views: 14626

Re: Anyone have a better explaination for Magnetic Mirrors?

No. You have a misunderstanding of the funny cusp. A funny cusp occurs where there are 4 or more even number of alternating fields meeting at one point. Given your cube-octahedron graphic, the funny cusps are where the little golden balls are. At the centers of all the red and yellow faces are poin...
by TheRadicalModerate
Sat Mar 30, 2013 10:03 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: Anyone have a better explaination for Magnetic Mirrors?
Replies: 20
Views: 14626

Re: Anyone have a better explaination for Magnetic Mirrors?

I asked this question a while back and didn't get a very satisfactory answer: Doesn't a genuine, rectified, truncated cube, with opposite-polarity coils on the triangular faces, get rid of the funny cusps? Right now, you get funny (biconic, triconic--pick a name) cusps because the 3 coils that meet ...
by TheRadicalModerate
Thu Sep 20, 2012 12:42 am
Forum: News
Topic: Sandia aiming for break-even
Replies: 16
Views: 10570

Nice to see MagLIF proceeding apace. This could be a big fat hairy deal once the Z-machine is upgraded to higher currents. Meanwhile, the picture with the article just cries out for a caption contest: http://images.sciencedaily.com/2012/09/120917124210-large.jpg (Attempt #1) "It's alive! It's aliiii...
by TheRadicalModerate
Fri Jun 15, 2012 9:43 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: What does "beta" mean?
Replies: 17
Views: 14606

KitemanSA wrote:With β=10%, the plasma pressure is LOWER than the magnetic pressure, so why would it expand?
I kept staring at the definition and every time read it as magnetic/plasma, not plasma/magnetic. Tag this one as a brain fart. Thanks.
by TheRadicalModerate
Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:49 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: What does "beta" mean?
Replies: 17
Views: 14606

I figured that I'd resurrect an ancient thread, rather than create a new one for this: I've recently realized that I'm confused about beta, as well. Tokamaks have betas around 5-10%, but here's where I've fallen and can't get up: If the magnetic pressure is less than the plasma pressure, doesn't tha...
by TheRadicalModerate
Mon May 28, 2012 6:36 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: (Pre-Wiffle) B-Field From Cubic Magrid
Replies: 24
Views: 16895

I can add that alternating the coil current in adjacent magnets does not give a symmetrical cusp geometry and behaves much different from the Polywell. Dan, I'm not talking about alternating polarities on the square faces--I agree that that will be wildly asymmetrical. But I think this is where rec...
by TheRadicalModerate
Fri May 25, 2012 10:15 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: (Pre-Wiffle) B-Field From Cubic Magrid
Replies: 24
Views: 16895

The Polywell has 6 (six) "in" magnets and no "out" EXCEPT that the eight quasi-traingular gaps (corners of the cube) are virtual "out" magnets. I guess I still have two questions: 1) All the WB pictures show cubes that are truncated by virtue of the magnets being circular, but the truncated cube is...
by TheRadicalModerate
Fri May 25, 2012 7:23 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: (Pre-Wiffle) B-Field From Cubic Magrid
Replies: 24
Views: 16895

The dodecahedron does have the correct orientation as described by Dr. B. Also, the octahedron does have parallel facings. It has four pair of parallel faces, while a cube only has three pair (and the dodec has six pair). You're right about the octahedron (so why doesn't polywell use that?), but yo...
by TheRadicalModerate
Fri May 25, 2012 4:54 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: (Pre-Wiffle) B-Field From Cubic Magrid
Replies: 24
Views: 16895

Yes, I realized that that was my problem at about 2:00 in the morning. So does that mean that there's a line cusp that extends along each edge of the cube? So that explains Bussard's comment about needing an even vertex configuration. But I notice that there's been a lot of talk about dodecahedrons,...
by TheRadicalModerate
Fri May 25, 2012 5:16 am
Forum: Theory
Topic: (Pre-Wiffle) B-Field From Cubic Magrid
Replies: 24
Views: 16895

(Pre-Wiffle) B-Field From Cubic Magrid

I realized today that I don't understand why the Magrid B-field has line cusps between the coils. The point cusps through the center of the coils I understand, but I've been looking at the classic field lines of a quadrupole magnetic field, and it doesn't have cusps between its current loops. I've b...
by TheRadicalModerate
Thu May 24, 2012 12:21 am
Forum: Theory
Topic: Anybody Have an Opinion About Sandia's MagLIF?
Replies: 1
Views: 4343

Anybody Have an Opinion About Sandia's MagLIF?

MagLIF = Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion A couple of news items went by on this a couple of months ago, but I just recently started digging into it, and it sounds pretty promising to me--for a simulation, at least. Not apropos of Polywell at all, but it seemed more like theory than news. I thought ...