Talk-Polywell.org

http://www.nature.com/news/triple-threa ... on-1.14445

Always nice to get the paper in just under the wire before the new year...

This technique just does not appeal to me. Too big, too complex.

http://phys.org/news/2014-01-fusion-ins ... ffect.html

Fusion instabilities lessened by unexpected effect

I wonder if this magnetic field applied to the Z- pinch is similar to the mild magnetic field that apparently helps the DPF .

Dan Tibbets

D Tibbets wrote:I wonder if this magnetic field applied to the Z- pinch is similar to the mild magnetic field that apparently helps the DPF .

The initial motivation for adding the axial B-field was to inhibit energy losses from electron and ion transport out of the fuel. They preheat the fuel with a laser fired at the ends of the cylinder, MHD-freeze the axial B-field into the fuel plasma, then zap the whole thing with the big Z-pinch, which crushes the liner around the fuel.

Per Axil's cite above, the inhibition of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities is a bit of a happy accident.

Sandia has published new MagLIF results. They have achieved 10E12 neutrons/pulse from a deuterium plasma. If they would have used a deuterium-tritium plasma then the expected neutron flux would have been 10E14. Break even would require reaching 10E16 neutrons/pulse. The Sandia press release is here https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources ... ag_fusion/.