Talk-Polywell.org

Fusion is an important part of my life. It has been since my teenage years when I used to go hiking with Guenter Janeschitz, who later became chief scientist at ITER (long story). In high school I used to give talks about fusion and why it is important. Most people did not get it (still don't).
During what I want to call the "dark ages" for fusion, when there was pretty much only ITER and NIF, I almost lost all hope that fusion was ever going to end up being economically viable. The Polywell was a refreshing concept, even if it never got the love it might have deserved and from the looks of it might never end up being economically viable (though who knows). It rekindled my spirit and hope for fusion. I found this forum and was hooked. So many great people and such engaging discussions! I am having a beer and cheer to the late Robert Bussard just for that alone!
And other fusion startups started to emerge. A new optimism for fusion spread here first! Those who were here back then, remember how we used to investigate all the information about TAE that we could get? Remember when we were first skeptical of Helion until Art Carlson (miss that guy so much) returned from a visit with an optimistic take? Today Helion is THE front runner in the race to economically viable fusion. He called it! What a guy!
It also peaked my interest and I became friends with David Kirtley not too long after that.
Now, we have almost 40 fusion startups. Some have the most fascinating concepts like Zap and HelicitySpace. Even Tokamaks are a lot more attractive thanks to CFS and Tokamak Energy thanks to high temperature super conductors. Back when, who could have predicted that? What a time to be alive!
I often lie awake at night, thinking, calculating (I suck at that part, I know), trying to understand physics and engineering details for the various concepts. And then... there is (almost) no one I can talk to about all this. Concepts like Tritium breeding are way over the head for most people. If they know anything about Tritium it is "Tritium bad, Fukushima". Sigh...
This is why I love coming here. We are all excited, positive, interested and at least relatively knowledgeable (and if we don't know something, we are eager to learn). None of my "real life" friends get it. Some of them even think this is a "quirk" of mine. Whenever I talk about fusion, their eyes glaze over and they just nod...
Wished, I could meet all of you some time for a beer (or preferably a glass or port in my case) or whatever you like to drink and just spend hours talking about fusion, technology and the future enabled by all this.
Anyway, just felt like letting that out today.
Cheers everyone!

SJ, You & a few others are keeping this board alive. Thanks to that I took a better look at Helion instead of the shallow glance & came to the realization that their approach was one of the best. Zap is another assuming scaling does not hit a brick wall (no guarantees in plasma).

Again, thanks to all here that are brilliant & look past the shallow end of the pool.

Yes, we are a nice bunch nowadays and I would gladly meet you all in real life. There are of course a few practicalities since we are spread out over half the world....

But as far as I can remember things have not always been that way. In the beginning, the discussion was at times nasty and bad. Art Carlson left us because of bad arguing with nonse arguments and insults.

It would be great meet with you all. I've been following this for a very long time - and hoping for everything from a resurgence of the Polywell to maybe even some of the scam stuff working like Rossi's E-Cat. (Has that E-Cat finally gone through its 9 lives? Whatever he's pushing hasn't seemed to scale up well.) Then there was Brilliant Power - that's not exactly panned out.

Still waiting and hoping that something will work - whether fusion or a fission renaissance, I don't much care. But we need the power, no matter where it comes from...

Oh, I remember the heated arguments. I refused to go into "General" after a while.
Mind you, I too was younger and much more hot- headed back then
Things have changed though. I think we all grew more positive and nicer after the "dark ages of fusion" ended and things are really looking up now.

Yeah, I know the feeling. Most of my family, friends and co-workers, ... no, scratch that, ALL of my family, friends and co-workers are as interested in this field (and other aspects of science) as my dog.

What a pity that Polywell, the machine that brought me here, ended by starvation ... and that these forums deteriorated until even I gave it up.

Well, to be totally sincere I did not abandon this site completely, I just stopped commenting but kept coming once in a while for the news. Who knows if there are others.

Now that there's new light on the horizon for fusion power, this forums might regain some life. We'll see.

Laments, I too just lurk once in a while. ahh for the heady days of real fusion news involving polywell. But I get it. Nobody wants to angel fund something that has a 25 percent chance of working. My hopes for polywell were a fusion rocket with an ISP of a million the design seemed perfect for that application. looks like I was born 100 years to early to be an astronaut and 100 year to late to be an explorer.

Skipjack wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 25, 2023 10:35 am

This is why I love coming here. We are all excited, positive, interested and at least relatively knowledgeable (and if we don't know something, we are eager to learn). None of my "real life" friends get it. Some of them even think this is a "quirk" of mine. Whenever I talk about fusion, their eyes glaze over and they just nod...
Wished, I could meet all of you some time for a beer (or preferably a glass or port in my case) or whatever you like to drink and just spend hours talking about fusion, technology and the future enabled by all this.
Anyway, just felt like letting that out today.
Cheers everyone!

I'm still here. I check in ever so often, but there is usually not much going on and we all still have real lives to live.

Reading through, I wondered when I joined. 2009! I feel like Polywell is such an elegant idea that it just has to work!

I have enjoyed very much reading all the dialogue (even if I don't post much), in particular yours Skipjack! So thank you!

All will be well. You are never alone. You all being here posting and reading is a characteristic of people I prefer to be near. All will be well.

Hey all! I feel remiss about my intermittent joinings these last few years.
That said, I am very excited about the current release of the DOE EMC2/SHINE proposal. It looks to me like Polywell is the heart of the thing.
Let's get some dialog and discussion going!