I wonder if this is a matter of ready to confirm & publish as it seems their FuseQ device test amps is high enough?
From what I understand, they have the input current, but the pinch current did not increase as much yet. Could be a lot of reasons for that. Looking at what LPPF has been going through, anything from impurities, electrodes not being optimal, to switches not ramping quickly enough and whatnot.
Call me pedantic, but saying they won’t hit breakeven this year when it’s December 26 isn’t breaking my heart…
Based on current capability, no matter running into early trouble delivering the current into an actual device pinch, they are close to proving their ability to reach breakeven. We see that in the near asymptotic production of neutrons in the graph vs current. So, for me at least, Zap_Energy team has delivered well this year.
We will just have to see how difficult the last bit is, that is a lot of current 1 MA.
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.
I wonder if this is a matter of ready to confirm & publish as it seems their FuseQ device test amps is high enough?
From what I understand, they have the input current, but the pinch current did not increase as much yet. Could be a lot of reasons for that. Looking at what LPPF has been going through, anything from impurities, electrodes not being optimal, to switches not ramping quickly enough and whatnot.
Possible as that tends to be the major showstopper for every fusion candidate we had in the last 40 years.....
I still keep my finger crossed for them.
Plenty of time to have instabilities, Q(science)>1 is just the start, plenty more ramp to go to commercial. Still, why take the gloomy Gus doubter position for no reason? And if there is a stability issue, likely there is a workaround.
On the other hand, Helion does not have the plasma stability issue.
Go Fusion 2024!! And Happy New Year!
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.
I guess they also have a lot to learn on how to optimize the running of their device(s) and to optimize also the power supplies in order to increase the pinch current. It will be interesting to follow their developemens in 2024.
True science seeks to uncover what we don't know we don't know.
I applaud all these efforts as each has contributed to the list of things we know we don't know.
Here's to more in 24!
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
Zap Energy has published a new paper, Progress on Multielement Spectroscopic Temperature and Impurity Studies on a High Flow Velocity Z-Pinch, A. W. Klemmer, S. Fuelling, B. S. Bauer, G. A. Wurden, A. S. Taylor, D. A. Sutherland, Aaron Hossack, U. Shumlak, B. Levitt, B. A. Nelson, M. Quinley, T. R. Weber, J. Smythe, B. Diamond, M. Parry, C. Parga, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10417014.
"We have not and we will not hit break-even this year," a Zap Energy spokesperson said.
SJ's comment:
This might unfortunately be true, though
I wonder if this is a matter of ready to confirm & publish as it seems their FuseQ device test amps is high enough?
Halfway through March 2024, & ZAP news has all turned into BS fluff. SJ brought up LPPF's struggles with high currents, switches, impurities, etc, so perhaps 'technical snags' have also bogged ZAP down. I wonder if the last yard of ugly details will be Zap's bane? To me, Helion is looking more & more to be the favorite.
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.
Fusion is a very hard nut to crack. At this stage any of the different fusion concepts might still face unexpected difficulties. But until someone really gets there for sure we cannot really know who it will be in advance. Both Zap Energy and Helion Energy currently have funding so they can develop their devices and try to work around any problems they might encounter.
Fusion Power Associates posted in 2023 this Fusion Program Note titled "Sayings of Confucius" which in a general way describes the problems facing the different fusion companies: http://qedfusion.org/FPA/ARC23/fpn23-27.shtml.
Zap Energy has published a new paper on arXiv on the 18th of January 2024. This work was apparently earlier presented at the IAEA FEC 2023. They are validating their simulations against their experiments to be able to trust the simulations to be used for improving performance in their devices.
The FuZE sheared-flow-stabilized Z pinch at Zap Energy is simulated using whole-device modeling employing an axisymmetric resistive magnetohydrodynamic formulation implemented within the discontinuous Galerkin WARPXM framework. Simulations show formation of Z pinches with densities of approximately 10^22 m^-3 and total DD fusion neutron rate of 10^7 per {\mu}s for approximately 2 {\mu}s. Simulation-derived synthetic diagnostics show peak currents and voltages within 10% and total yield within approximately 30% of experiment for similar plasma mass. The simulations provide insight into the plasma dynamics in the experiment and enable a predictive capability for exploring design changes on devices built at Zap Energy.
Zap Energy’s unique approach to fusion, known as a sheared-flow-stabilized Z pinch, has achieved plasma electron temperatures between 11 and 37 million degrees Celsius (20 to 66 million degrees Fahrenheit) in their Fusion Z-pinch Experiment (FuZE) device. These temperatures, roughly equivalent to the core of the sun, were achieved in a device that is a fraction of the scale of other fusion systems.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
--Philip K. Dick