Fun toy the Navy could add with a Polywell-equipped fleet

If polywell fusion is developed, in what ways will the world change for better or worse? Discuss.

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MSimon
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Post by MSimon »

Billy Catringer wrote:Fair enough! Just remember that you will have to change that water out regularly or run it through treatment every day or so. Demin water likes metals. It starts dissolving them fairly quickly.
I was a Naval Nuke. We paid a lot of attention to water quality. pH, dissolved solids etc. And not just in the primary loop. With the instrumentation available today the whole operation is easily automated.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

kunkmiester
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Post by kunkmiester »

From what I can tell, a polywell and all it's attendant stuff(cryo, power converters, etc.) takes up about as much space as the reactor and steam gear for a fission system. On the other hand, the shielding and other concerns are less, meaning it's a lot lighter.

There's also this:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/01/365-me ... motor.html

Which makes the cryo plant dual purpose.
Evil is evil, no matter how small

MSimon
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Post by MSimon »

kunkmiester wrote:From what I can tell, a polywell and all it's attendant stuff(cryo, power converters, etc.) takes up about as much space as the reactor and steam gear for a fission system. On the other hand, the shielding and other concerns are less, meaning it's a lot lighter.

There's also this:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/01/365-me ... motor.html

Which makes the cryo plant dual purpose.
Handy. That.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

D Tibbets
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Post by D Tibbets »

Speaking of superconducting moters, along with magrids. On a thread talking about ITER problems, it's mentioned that alot of thermal energy can be released if the supeconducter quenches. How robust can a 35 MW superconducting moter be considering the large torques it will need to handle?


Dan Tibbets
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MSimon
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Post by MSimon »

D Tibbets wrote:Speaking of superconducting moters, along with magrids. On a thread talking about ITER problems, it's mentioned that alot of thermal energy can be released if the supeconducter quenches. How robust can a 35 MW superconducting moter be considering the large torques it will need to handle?

Dan Tibbets
The design must be fairly robust because the Navy is interested in it for ship propulsion.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

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