i'm trying to build a dodecahedron polywell reactor
Lower resistance than copper starts getting into serious money.
Copper refrigerated with liquid nitrogen is a big improvement.
Silver is a bit more conductive than copper. It's reported that the Manhattan Project borrowed silver from the treasury to build electromagnets during WW2 when there was a copper shortage.
Superconductors are obvious, but use exotic and hard to form ceramic wires or exotic refrigeration.
Some kinds of buckytubes I've heard do very well with ballistic conduction of electrons down the interior. But that's an exotic material. I'm wondering if microscopic passages through other materials might produce the same effect.
Copper refrigerated with liquid nitrogen is a big improvement.
Silver is a bit more conductive than copper. It's reported that the Manhattan Project borrowed silver from the treasury to build electromagnets during WW2 when there was a copper shortage.
Superconductors are obvious, but use exotic and hard to form ceramic wires or exotic refrigeration.
Some kinds of buckytubes I've heard do very well with ballistic conduction of electrons down the interior. But that's an exotic material. I'm wondering if microscopic passages through other materials might produce the same effect.
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I don't personally think this can be built for anything close to $15k. In any event, it is probably not a good trade to cool copper with liquid helium. If you intend to use cryogenics at all, use nitrogen. The systems associated with it very low temps will by far outweigh the costs difference between copper and 2G HTS coils:
http://www.superpower-inc.com/content/products-services
and if you wheel and deal, you might negotiate free coils from Superpower in order to get their brand out there. This stuff already has commercial applications, and if you incorporate and get several of the guys here to sign on, you might under those conditions get some free coils.
Liquid helium temps require all sorts of special materials that don't fracture under stress at those temperatures. Just sounds like a nightmare of troubles that could cost years of work and tens of thousands in cash.
http://www.superpower-inc.com/content/products-services
and if you wheel and deal, you might negotiate free coils from Superpower in order to get their brand out there. This stuff already has commercial applications, and if you incorporate and get several of the guys here to sign on, you might under those conditions get some free coils.
Liquid helium temps require all sorts of special materials that don't fracture under stress at those temperatures. Just sounds like a nightmare of troubles that could cost years of work and tens of thousands in cash.
"Courage is not just a virtue, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." C. S. Lewis