Jccarlton wrote:One word, outgassing. Vacuum is going to have to drive everything and controlling the vacuum is going to control, especially if you get sputtering combined with high voltages. Arcing will really ruin your day as it does things you have to see to believe.
In order
1. Magnet containment, insulation. The MaGrid magnets are going to require a ceramic insulator that is free or virtual leaks or be totally enclosed in a vacuum tight envelope. Also the coil shape will have to follow the magnetic field profile to avoid field peaking.
2. Keeping the grids clean and placing pumps behind the grids without causing a ground through an ion pump.
3. Preventing oddball virtual leaks and making sure all internal hardware vents properly.
I think everything that goes into the vacuum chamber will have to be welded shut.
ITER uses a boron coating to get a handle on the first wall problem. I discussed that with Dr. Mike and others in another thread (do a search).
There are a raft of problems that will have to be solved. Dr. Bussard said it came down to engineering (I assume he had a wry smile on his face and a gleam in his eye when he said that).
I liked what Bucky Fuller had to say about the matter. When you get good at engineering things don't get easier. You get harder problems. I'm looking forward to it.
When all the problems get solved (well enough to deliver power) it will be a day of triumph and depression. Triumph for having made it work. Depression because, there will likely not be such a tall mountain to climb for quite a while. The journey is where the fun lies. The destination is the end of the journey.
I'm looking forward to it. I was just pointing out the kinds of problems that could be forseen. I'm sure that there will be a whole bunch that we don't even know about yet. Extreme energy combined with high vacuum is the weirdest environment and new engineering frontier. What fun!!!
MSimon wrote:Currently man produces 1/5,000th the energy of solar input. and lots of other good stuff...
Thanks! That sounds about right. I just wondered. I'll keep wondering. And advocating for more of this kind of research wherever and whenever I can.
Before you say, "Write your congress-critter!" I should add that only if this comes true will I have one. (and there's something about the Stars and Stripes flying over the Peace Tower that seems, just, wrong!)
I've seen "Bitter" and "Bittern". Somebody with access to a good academic library needs to get some book dust on them to track down the original. I think one must be incorrect, but the internet is not the place to find out which, as the error seems to have propagated.
Dr. Temkin's research interests encompass a variety of fields of basic and applied physics, with major emphasis on coherent sources of infrared and millimeter waves and their applications. Both experimental and theoretical research activities are undertaken.
High Gradient Acceleration:
High gradient electron accelerators capable of operation at gradients above 100 MeV/meter. Novel sources of high power microwaves and novel structures for achieving high gradient acceleration. Laser-photocathode driven RF-guns for use as injectors into high gradient accelerator structures.
I've seen "Bitter" and "Bittern". Somebody with access to a good academic library needs to get some book dust on them to track down the original. I think one must be incorrect, but the internet is not the place to find out which, as the error seems to have propagated.
I do not believe that clouds, etc. are positive feedbacks for CO2 so I do not think we risk a tipping point or runaway AGW.
That being said, if CO2 is a problem then a commercialized Polywell is a part of the solution. In the power grid, CO2 is not released in significant amounts by the USE of electricity, it is released primarily by the GENERATION of electricity at fossil fuel burning powerplants.
A demonstration of diamagnetic levitation was done a decade or so back, in which the cusp of a Bitter magnet was used to levitate a frog. This has nothing to do with the iron in their blood. The effect is similar to superconductor levitation. It only shows up with extremely intense magnetic fields. I think they said graphite will levitate around 5 T, living things more like 20 T.
I thought it was facinating, particularly since it showed what you could do with a water-cooled magnet. Dr. Bussard said it looked cruel, and thought we ought to toss the researcher in a big Bitter magnet and see how he liked it.
I doubt the frog felt anything. The effect happens because all materials are diamagnetic - the electrons all tend to line up against the imposed field. So that means the water and the frog in it were all evenly lifted. I wouldn't mind the experiment of being floated in a 20 T field, but that would be one hell of a magnet!!
The forces are reasonably uniform at the atomic level - there is no way the nervous system would even notice.
