More information on Piston fusion can be found at Physorg
Do not worry it will take 10 plus years before anything will come of it (even if it does). A Polywell demo fusion reactor is just a few years away (hopefully).
I don't which version of fusion works. I'd be happy if any one of them ends up being successful. Art Carlson and many of the pdf's I've downloaded lately has me somewhat convinced that it will be some variant of the FRC.
Does it seem to anyone else that a key advantage to polywell would be far fewer moving parts? All of those pistons are going to wear down through continous use and require more maintainance, would it not? Not to mention the heat buildup and net energy cost of the friction of the pistons involved.
EricF wrote:Does it seem to anyone else that a key advantage to polywell would be far fewer moving parts? All of those pistons are going to wear down through continous use and require more maintainance, would it not? Not to mention the heat buildup and net energy cost of the friction of the pistons involved.
Yes and yes.
I did a BOE on the reliability of such a system and came up with a MTBF of around 1 year. Probably workable.
Polywell with D-D (neutronic fuel) has a similar MTBF. With Polywell the question is not mechanical wear but neutron damage to the SC magnets.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.