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Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2017 7:30 pm
by mvanwink5
SJ,
You may be right, but TA is talking like PB11 is their commercial target instead of an interim, which was a bit of a surprise to me. Only one way to find out for sure...

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 2:28 pm
by crowberry
General Fusion has posted very nice summary presentation on Alternative Fusion Reactor Concepts by Blair P. Bromley at http://generalfusion.com/2017/06/altern ... ence-2017/.

Here is General Fusions own summary of their plans;
• Moving to Integrated GF-MTF Prototype:
• 2016/17: inflection point in all key areas of technology development; confidence to construct integrated prototype
• Pre-conceptual design now underway, detailed design concept toward year-end.
• Prototype goal: achieving fusion conditions (10 keV), sub-breakeven
• Will operate at low rep-rate (one shot per day)
The presentation also contains a new drawing of what the GF prototype reactor might look like.

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 10:35 pm
by Skipjack
• Prototype goal: achieving fusion conditions (10 keV), sub-breakeven
Well that is rather disappointing, isn't it?

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 12:09 am
by mvanwink5
No, it is the difference between private and government. GF is doing only what is needed to prove their design in integrated form.

Unlike TriAlpha, GF has significant issues to solve in the prototype, such as:

-plasma contamination during compression (lead mist from the collapsing shock wave, they plan to use a lithium coating via lithium injection),

-adiabatic compression (current compression by explosive collapse using explosive charges is being used to verify), magnetics remain stable, no contamination by fusion killing contaminates,

-going to a full size plasma injector (they are at 500ev and need to go to 10kev, if I am understanding the status correctly),

-and the technical challenge of doing it all together (sending a jet of lithium into the spinning cavity in the 3 meter spinning lead sphere, coating the inside of the cavity, followed by the perfect shaped shock wave compression, resulting in adiabatic compression of plasma without lead mist contamination - quite a feat).

Separate pieces tested separately, and computer simulation is not the same as working all together physically.

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 3:40 pm
by crowberry
Skipjack wrote:
• Prototype goal: achieving fusion conditions (10 keV), sub-breakeven
Well that is rather disappointing, isn't it?

It is better to have realistic and achievable milestones that you can meet, than to have too ambitious goals and fail to meet them. Small steps forward are also a good thing.

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 3:46 pm
by crowberry
mvanwink5 wrote:No, it is the difference between private and government. GF is doing only what is needed to prove their design in integrated form.

...

-going to a full size plasma injector (they are at 500ev and need to go to 10kev, if I am understanding the status correctly),
The goal for the plasma injector has been to reach 100 eV according to old presentations by GF and now they can do 500 eV. The shock wave created by the pistons is planned to heat the plasma to 10 keV. Actually the wanted peak plasma temperature is 25 keV.

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 4:04 pm
by mvanwink5
I have been unclear what the 500 ev has referred to. I thought it referred to temperature reached under stable plasma conditions using both their injector plus explosive compression using shaped charges (issue being stable plasma and contaminants - lithium liner used to suppress contaminants).

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:01 pm
by crowberry
Yes, I guess you are right in that the 500 eV is for the combination of injection and compression. But it is still for the small injector so the results for the corresponding big injector will be interesting to see.

Here is an article An interview with Bruce Colwill, Chief Financial Officer at General Fusion written by Brittany Lane. It is very general and non-technical but explains in simple terms what GF is trying to do https://unreasonable.is/qa-general-fusion/.

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 12:24 am
by Skipjack
500 eV is not that much if it is plasma temperature. But once you manage to get over 1 keV, you know pretty certain that you have a valid system.

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 1:18 am
by mvanwink5
SJ
Adiabatic compression is GF's target, and they are searching for a plasma structure that will provide that. That is the point, not the temperature. Once GF has determined the structure compression will be scaled up, hence the larger injector was made and is being tested. GF is the only ones that know the current status of those large injector tests. So, 500 ev is old news and led to the scaled up test injector for which we have no news of. We can surmise that it is going well based on their movement to the $$$ integrated system.

You see what effort they are making to find the right plasma structure, it is not automatic that you crash two spheromaks together and get the required fusion conditions. But I don't see Helion doing that, which is as you point out possibly just being secretive. Still it means that claims are unverified. In contrast, TriAlpha and GF are putting into articles and conferences their efforts and insights that bolster their claims. Yet, TriAlpha and GF aren't publishing for altruistic science reasons, they both want big investors for near term big money backing.

I dunno about Helion. I don't see what I would want to see for me to have confidence, but then again, I don't have big money to throw at them. :lol:

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 4:57 pm
by Skipjack
mvanwink5 wrote:SJ
You see what effort they are making to find the right plasma structure, it is not automatic that you crash two spheromaks together and get the required fusion conditions. But I don't see Helion doing that, which is as you point out possibly just being secretive. Still it means that claims are unverified. In contrast, TriAlpha and GF are putting into articles and conferences their efforts and insights that bolster their claims. Yet, TriAlpha and GF aren't publishing for altruistic science reasons, they both want big investors for near term big money backing.
You again with your word inventions. Helion released papers on their results with merging and compression of plasmoids years ago. I have pointed that out to you before. Helion is way past that point now. They broke the 5keV barrier over 3 years ago. Sufficient pulse length was already demonstrated in 2008 and compression is pretty much there already as well.

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2017 2:10 am
by Skipjack
General Fusion posted their latest research papers:
http://generalfusion.com/research-library/

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:32 am
by crowberry
The presentation Physics objectives of PI3 spherical tokamak program http://generalfusion.com/wp-content/upl ... ctives.pdf contains this summary of the plans at General Fusion:
Plasma Injector 3 Objectives:
• Explore the physics of MTF reactor-scale plasmas
• Demonstrate performance goals on total inventory, magnetic flux, and energy confinement time. These goals are a >10x increase from previous MTF experiments completed by GF.
• Remove technical risks for building full-scale prototype of repetitively operated non-destructive compression device that is capable of reaching 10 keV temperature range.

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 4:36 pm
by mvanwink5
GF EPR 2017 presentation on plasma formation and compression:
http://generalfusion.com/wp-content/upl ... iments.pdf

Re: General Fusion in the news

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 3:52 pm
by mvanwink5
Latest Newsletter:
Transitioning To Our Prototype Development Program

After a summer of hard work against the poignant backdrop of burning Pacific Northwest forests, the urgency of General Fusion’s mission is more clearly in view. And so it is with impatient optimism that we are now transitioning into our Prototype Development Program. The goal of this Program is straightforward - to provide “proof of concept” demonstration of our uniquely practical approach to fusion energy and clear the path to full commercialization of General Fusion’s technology. The value of our work has been signaled by the smoky skies of Vancouver, skies which carry the ashes of a British Columbia environment suffering from years of increasingly hotter and drier weather. We have an opportunity to provide this changing world with a better way of creating clean, low impact energy and our Prototype is intended to prove it.
This month we completed definition of an overall Prototype design architecture with robust capabilities to create fusion conditions, an architecture that is on the scale of the largest national fusion machines anywhere. This integrated Prototype will stand on the shoulders of the past decade’s achievements in demonstrating the key elements of our fusion technology. But the success of our Prototype Development Program will depend on much more than conceiving a large fusion machine. I want to highlight three initiatives we are pursuing to enable success: the selection of a location to build and operate our Prototype, the creation of strategic Program partnerships with industry, and the enhancement of General Fusion’s organizational capabilities.
The process of selecting a site for our Prototype has begun in earnest. This endeavor involves the identification of potential locations that have the right mix of industrial resources, appropriately designated land, regulatory infrastructure, and energy policy to foster efficient Program execution. Knowing that we want to make a siting decision in 2018, we have already started evaluating several potential locations around the world. Integral to these evaluations are discussions with government organizations who share our commitment to transformative energy technologies. Fusion touches on the geopolitics of energy security, industrial competitiveness, and environmental policy in fundamental ways. We are mindful of the responsibility and opportunity this brings.
General Fusion is actively building formal industry partnerships to bring best-in-class enabling technologies and competencies to our Prototype. Companies like Hatch, which has the power plant engineering skills necessary to develop systems and structures supporting the fusion systems, and Microsoft, which is providing big data analytics to mine our database of test results for plasma control solutions, complement General Fusion’s own capabilities. These partnerships reduce program risk, cost, and schedule.
We are also enhancing our leadership and technical talent to position General Fusion to execute on all aspects of the Program. As we make our transition from laboratory-based systems development to the Prototype Development Program, the company is focused on developing stronger program management and design control processes. Looking forward, we are preparing for deployment of the Prototype in a few short years. This means bringing leaders in configuration management and construction to the Program early enough to ensure that we are ready.
Climate change is happening, and so is our Prototype Development Program.
- Christofer Mowry, CEO, General Fusion