Small Tri Alpha news blurp

[Giorgio]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-018-0389-0.epdf?author_access_token=R2uYId8rlXaECcWcbWkOItRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MG_SQq2nvFNm7Qh08h388r5NPvtxkiUxPtWnWFcALwelg9ZBPif0vVq4GLgvy1EKJ6mN0jKfkoQm6Ylej4apkFKJ_6h87xfWy8dWGLGWmyhA%3D%3D

A newly published paper in Nature Physics reporting breakthrough results from experimental work on C-2U targeting the key goals of achieving and maintaining fusion temperatures and alpha particle ash removal. Stable plasma was already achieved, but temperature was not. This is the science milestone that TAE needed to make their approach successful. Norman, as I understand it is extending these results to prove scaling.

I wonder if Polywell can use the neutral beam results that TAE has pioneered, after all, plasma heating is also the missing key to make Polywell's approach successful as EMC2, too, has shown containment with proof of Grad's postulate on cusps?

That was really an interesting read, if with the scaling they can confirm the fusion improvement rate of20/30 times as well as the possibility to use it to extract Alphas this could become an essential tool for everyone making fusion research.

[JohnP]

Youtube thought I'd like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4eTAYbuvyQ
Nicely done "Verge Science" video on TAE and deep learning.

[crowberry]

Michl Binderbauer will talk at SOFE 2019 on Development of fusion technologies and their application at TAE https://indico.cern.ch/event/749923/contributions/3306748/.

28th IEEE Symposium on Fusion Engineering, 2 – 6 June, 2019, Sawgrass Marriott Resort,1000 PGA Tour Boulevard, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida 32082 USA
https://sofe2019.utk.edu/index.html

[Skipjack]

Paper accompanying Michael Binderbauer's presentation at the 28th IEEE Symposium on Fusion Engineering:
https://indico.cern.ch/event/749923/con ... -03-19.pdf
Seems like Norman is finished already?

[mvanwink5]

SJ
I would not say finished, but enough information that Copernicus engineering and plans have been initiated.

BTW, thank you for the links, looks like Helion and TAE are a go, General Fusion should be a go, but I had thought that PI3 was finished. Looks like they are still testing, which might explain why demo has not been green lighted (I had blamed that delay on the mini-me compression design testing).

Polywell...LM... better get a move on.

[Skipjack]

I am somewhat disappointed that Copernicus will only demonstrate 10 keV ion temperatures. 116 million degrees does not seem all that much. Tokamak Energy is going to do about the same with their current prototype and Helion presumably reached 8 keV with their last prototype (at least that was the goal for "Venti" during the ARPA-E Alpha program). From what I know about Helion's approach, they should at least be aiming for at least 35 keV with their current prototype in order to achieve Q>1.

[mvanwink5]

Cost. It does what they need it to do, it gives them engineering data. $200 million is nothing to sneeze at for Zero megawatts. They would not spend it unless the cat was in the bag based on Norman. Norman showed they can scale Temperature, control the plasma, achieve lifetime.

Of course if you have the money I am sure they would build you a bigger one.

[mvanwink5]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmaho ... 8341ef1d4a

Its next device, dubbed Copernicus, is designed to demonstrate an energy gain. It will involve deuterium-tritium fusion, the aim of most competitors, but a milestone on TAE's path to a hotter, but safer, hydrogen-boron reaction.

Binderbauer expects to pass the D-T fusion milestone soon.

"What we're really going to see in the next couple years is actually the ability to actually make net energy, and that's going to happen in the machine we call Copernicus," he said in a "fireside chat" at UC Irvine.

Clarification: The headline on this story originally began, "Energy From Fusion In Two Years." Two days after the story was published, Binderbauer backed away from that statement through a spokesperson, who said, "While Michl said a 'couple years,' he meant a small number of years. Not literally two."

[mvanwink5]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... HiyHBO-4pk
worth watching

[crowberry]

TAE Technology has been granted also for 2019 computer time through the INCITE (Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment) programme:

The Department of Energy (DOE) has fueled TAE Technologies' quest in with awards of computer time through the INCITE (Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment) program. This year, the company has 750,000 node-hours on Argonne National Laboratory's Theta supercomputer. That followed a 2018 INCITE award of 500,000 node-hours on Theta, housed at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility. Theta helps TAE sift the physical models underlying codes that simulate the vastly different temporal and spatial scales inherent to plasma physics.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/ddoe-fpt071619.php