Talk-Polywell.org

https://www.energy.senate.gov/hearings/2024/9/full-committee-hearing-to Thank you for the link Bennmann. Not much new in there, but I found some of the answers interesting, although I think the witnesses could have offered some better arguments a couple times. For example, when Sen. Hoeven seemed f...

I don't understand this choosing of sides when talking fusion. PhDs vs what, non PhDs? Tokamaks vs FRCs. ITER vs everyone else. Publicly funded research vs privately funded research. Fusion research is not an spectator sport, where we only care about our side "winning". In my opinion, Tokamaks and S...

You guys are assuming that Helion would operate D-T experiments at power levels that would threaten the health of the machine. Hi Skipjack. No, not really. I don't assume that. Just talking for the fun of it. In fact, I'm quite sure Helion's personnel is smart enough to have envisioned this danger ...

Interesting points. Yep, lacking hard numbers, speculating over these machines workings can be fun. Let's see if I can add something that makes sense. The particles in a D-T plasma are electrons, deuterons, and tritons. In a D-He3 plasma they are electrons, deuterons, and helium-3 ions (helions). Th...

Still not sure just what the power output for D-T would be at the Te/Ti = .1 regime where Polaris operates though. Presumably it's better than D-D, but is it better than D-He3 at 20 keV? Couldn't say for sure. Well, unless some new weird phenomenon pop up in Polaris, power production from D-T at 20...

... but I think we can safely assume they hope to run D-He3 by the end of the year, since you can't convert D-T products to electricity via the virtual dynamo How sure are we about that. With a 1:1 D-He3 mix at 20 keV, more or less 8% of the energy goes to the neutrons, leaving ~92% for the ions. I...

1 MW/m² for Polaris, or for the prototype? I wonder how high of a peek it will be able to bear. I remember Kirtley in a video presenting Trenta's results, saying that one of their design goals was to keep power loading on the first wall (X-rays plus neutrons) under 10 MW/m², although he didn't clari...

I'm quite optimistic about next year D-T campaign with Polaris, but also a bit worried. If my BOE calcs are even remotely accurate, they'll need to be very cautions not to blow the machine. Unless some new, unexpected instabilities pop up, Dr. Kirtleys own formulas suggest that a 50-50 D-He3 mix, un...

Does anyone know if the info offered during this conference is going to be available for the general public afterwards. As far as I know, it was not on previous occasions, and that's frustrating. This paper by John Slough is, for now, only accesible to those registered for the meeting, and a search ...

I haven't heard about drilling causing earthquakes. Fracking, yes, depletion of underground water tables and oil deposits, yes. Drilling per se, not that I know. Can anyone give some examples? Unless there are examples of this, or at least a credible theory regarding a relation, I think running to t...

Almost 5 months already and Barry-1 keeps losing altitude at a constant rate: https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/gr ... ATNR=58338

It doesn't look good.

Just to note for distant future reference, if they do cool the mantle and stop plate tectonics, carbon-based life is going to die out… Much more dangerous than Global Warming, though might take a while. Yep, it might. If humanity extracted the totality of the energy we are now using (about 20 TW by...

A D-He3 reaction should be 18.3 MeV in charged particles 2He4 (3.6 MeV) + p ( 14.7 MeV ) Yep, you are right. I mixed D-3He and D-T energies. Thanks for the correction. IF they have enough He3 from T- decay, then D-D reactions would be 1/2 of the total. If they do not, then they would be 2/3 of the ...

So… if I’m hearing right, 1% consumption (give or take 10x). If that’s correct, it seems serious question as to why the chamber has to be evacuated, since the exhaust is basically the same as the fuel. Seems like inserting the 0.1- 10% back has to be much quicker than emptying it entirely. Can anyb...

Have Helion said how much D & He3 constitutes the reaction plasma? I know they have a patent which discussed relative concentrations, especially hypothesizing that it might be possible to create as much He3 from DD reactions as lost in DHe3 reactions. Based on that we can probably work out the tota...