Small update from Lawrenceville Plasma Physics

[GIThruster]

Despite the setbacks with the switches, which no one cold have anticipated; it is remarkable the speed with which Lerner and crew have flown through their earliest experiments and how fantastically CHEAP a FF reactor can be built. Doing so much with so little always gets my vote.

Remember, this work is really not in competition with Poly. There's an upper limit to how large a FF reactor can be built and it's a very low limit. We're talking about 10 MW reactor IIRC. Would make a decent thruster if ganged together, but not gonna ever be worth ganging them for GW power. This is really intended for micro-distribution, so it's not in competition with the Poly.

Nice though the two would share the same infrastructure with regards gathering B11 fuel.

[chrismb]

If it does work: If it does work then they'd better hope that the 'twist' to the plasma is the thing that actually makes it work, because if that isn't the key enablement that makes it work then they'll have done a lot of work for someone else to take advantage of.

[D Tibbets]

Perhaps, if the profit motive is their primary concern.
Of course Einstein never profited from his General Relativity theory, or did he? Depends on how you define profit.

Dan Tibbets

[Aero]

Perhaps, if the profit motive is their primary concern.
Of course Einstein never profited from his General Relativity theory, or did he? Depends on how you define profit.

Dan Tibbets

Einstein profited from being famous, and was famous because of his theories. Of course, he was also brilliant which made him worth the rewards that his fame allowed.

[Axil]

Both Einstein and Newton 'had autism'.

Researchers at Cambridge and Oxford universities believe both scientists displayed signs of Asperger's Syndrome.


Many people with Asperger's are often regarded as being eccentric. They sometimes lack social skills, are obsessed with complex topics and can have problems communicating with others.


Mathematicians, physicists and engineers have a higher that average incidence of autism in their family histories.

[Brian H]

On the LPP website:
billion-degree pinches achieved.

Timing is everything!

[Giorgio]

Extremely interesting update, plus full of data to crunch over during lunch break.

I am starting to think if we shouldn't open a section dedicated to FF here on the board, at least they give us something to study and think about.

[Skipjack]

Yes, very interesting update indeed. I really appreciate their openess. Very cool!

[Brian H]

The axial magnet's PS had gone blooey, so the runs were done with 'residual' permanent + terrestrial fields. Replacement (warranty) has arrived and s/b in place soon. With that + bringing the 4 blown (out of 12) switches up to snuff, should be able to operate in pB11 regime by later this month (?).

Then the fun begins!

[ladajo]

I wish them success this month with all twelve firing, but also worry that this continued successful open track research could impact and or undermine Polywell.
I temper that with recognition of the differenced in final applications. However, politics hardly ever recognize technical realities.

[D Tibbets]

If they are reaching temperatures where P-B11 fusion can occur at significant levels, how will they detect it? I assume they will need proton or alpha detectors. Over the very short time frames, and I assume intense electrical noise environment inside of the vacuum vessel where the detectors would have to be placed, the challenges will be considerable. Perhaps, if the fusion ions are in a tight beam, having a detector outside a thin window on the vacuum vessel might detect some of the particles that manage to penetrate. Is there any electronic counter that can operate over such short time scales? Perhaps they will depend on plastic radiation counters such as Cr39 or polycarbonate (sort of a variation on photographic film dosimeters). Or perhaps they hope to have enough P-B11 fusion reactions that the rare neutrons from side reactions will be detectable.

Aside from fusion, I wonder if they will be able to test Lerner's theory about bremsstrulung radiation being suppressed by extreamly high magnetic fields. That in itself would be significant.

That, along with demonstrating P-B11 fusion before the end of the year would both be impressive and eye opening.

Dan Tibbets

[Brian H]

On my suggestion, LPP just applied for the 2011 Zayed Future Energy Prize, 3 awards--$1.5 Million, 2X$350,000. If the distinguished jury (headed, of all people, by Pachauri of IPCC fame) has any sense, FF will win hands down. As long as they don't think too deeply about how many apple carts it would kick into the next county.

[GIThruster]

I wish them success this month with all twelve firing, but also worry that this continued successful open track research could impact and or undermine Polywell.

The two are not in direct competition. The FF reactor has a very low upper limit in size, 10 MW thermal, IIRC. The Poly works better the larger you build it. They'll find different applications and if both succeed, the fact they can both provide cheap energy from the same B11 infrastructure should help keep energy prices down and thwart any gouging.

If they both succeed, it's totally win-win for everyone and of course the FF is for your starfighters while the Poly is for your interplanetary cruisers.

[zapkitty]

The two are not in direct competition. The FF reactor has a very low upper limit in size, 10 MW thermal, IIRC. The Poly works better the larger you build it. They'll find different applications and if both succeed, the fact they can both provide cheap energy from the same B11 infrastructure should help keep energy prices down and thwart any gouging.

If they both succeed, it's totally win-win for everyone and of course the FF is for your starfighters while the Poly is for your interplanetary cruisers.

Do you have a cite for that? The original FFs were to be in the 20-25 MWe range (+ 32-40 MWt) until they scaled the initial units down to ease cooling requirements.

[GIThruster]

Sorry Kitty, it would take me as much to find it as you, but that's what Eric Lerner told me on the phone about 5 years ago. He hadn't related it to the Poly, but he was very explicit that the upper limit in size is relatively small compared to any other sort of nuclear reactor. He said "10 Mw" several times, but it's possible he was talking about useful power out rather than thermal. At that time he hadn't even begun to cope with the x-ray problem, so I presume he meant thermal.

Now of course you can gang them together if you like, and the reactor without heat transfer or shielding is the size of a coffee can, so you can put together arrangements for fairly high energy reactors and thrusters. That's not the market Lerner is after. His driving concern is to provide micro-distributed power globally, including across all Africa.