If polywell results prove to be encouraging, will the funding of the project continue to come from the Navy checkbook(over $200 Mil), or will the project get transfered to another branch, eg. ARPA - E ?
http://science.house.gov/docs/ENEWS/200 ... _ENEWS.pdf
Funds for Continuing Development.
DOE gets criticised in a big way... this is a Congressional Research Service Report:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34497.pdf
"Proponents of ARPA-E contend that additional science and technology would help respond to the nation’s need for clean, affordable, and reliable energy.... ARPA-E proponents doubt that DOE can achieve ARPA-E’s goals with its existing structure and personnel, as opposed to the ARPA E’s innovative R&D management design."
"Proponents state that ARPA-E will address organizational problems at DOE by being small and flexible, unlike existing DOE organizations, which they believe are risk-averse and do not sufficiently interact with each other to reach the nation’s energy goals. In addition, proponents argue that ARPA-E should focus on breakthrough research,"
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34497.pdf
"Proponents of ARPA-E contend that additional science and technology would help respond to the nation’s need for clean, affordable, and reliable energy.... ARPA-E proponents doubt that DOE can achieve ARPA-E’s goals with its existing structure and personnel, as opposed to the ARPA E’s innovative R&D management design."
"Proponents state that ARPA-E will address organizational problems at DOE by being small and flexible, unlike existing DOE organizations, which they believe are risk-averse and do not sufficiently interact with each other to reach the nation’s energy goals. In addition, proponents argue that ARPA-E should focus on breakthrough research,"
Given that ARPA-E has now received $400 million in funding (where it was not funded at all under the Bush administration) and that Steven Chu is at least aware of Dr. Bussard's work, I have hopes. I assume the Navy would be willing to let the folks at ARPA-E take over funding the folks at EMC2 if Dr. Nebel and Co. wanted that.
Interesting, short read on the status of ARPA-E: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~ ... M/gp_intro.
Interesting, short read on the status of ARPA-E: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~ ... M/gp_intro.