Talk-Polywell.org

UPDATE: I got a call back from Bill Maile in the Governor's office. He spoke with the Governor's policy advisors, and in brief, the story is false. This is the first anyone in the Governor's office has even heard of the idea. He is going to do some research to try and find out the source of the stor...

I called the Governor's office, got transferred to the press office, and then passed at least one level up the chain. Finally I got to a someone who clearly was not aware of the report, but took it seriously. I helped him locate the report on the web, and then he took down my name, number, and affil...

As for contacting Dr. Bussard directly, that's a great idea, but I think he's even harder to get a hold of than the governor. Still, it's worth a try. I've sent e-mail to the address given in the IAC paper. I suggest that others refrain from doing so at this time — no sense inundating him with emai...

I tried to write to the Governor's office using the form for that purpose on the web, but I got conflicting results — after submitting the form, the next page said both "your email has been sent" and "email error: comment not found". I tried it twice with the same results. I'll try calling a bit lat...

Incidentally, Schwarzenegger's web site includes press releases and a (staff) blog. I'm unable to find any mention at all of fusion here, though. So whatever the original source, it doesn't appear to be an official press release or blog entry from the governor's office.

I want to be sure everyone knows about the news in this thread — in brief, there are reports that California is going to fund Dr. Bussard's organization for a "multi-million dollar" research effort. If true, this is the best news in polywell funding since, well, ever. Please keep your eyes peeled an...

Wow! :!: If this is true, it's revolutionary — it's the funding breakthrough we've been waiting for, and should prove whether or not the polywell approach can work within the next few years! I've done some searching looking for confirmation, and while it turns up a lot of hits, it's mostly just blog...

In ferromagnets the field must go through the material or there is no field. There is no way around it. The aligned matter creates the field. That's true of electromagnets too; the currents simply align the domains in the material, which creates the field. But the key is that fields are additive; a...

OK, I think I've got this figured out. In a typical cylindrical permanent magnet, with N at one end and S at the other, the dipoles are all in line with the axis and the equivalent electrical current would be one that goes around the outside of the cylinder, the round way. But we want a magnet whose...

I have seen ring magnets, but if you lie one flat on a table, then the top will be one polarity and the bottom will be the opposite polarity, with the lines going through the material. I understand, but I think this may be an artifact of manufacturing convenience (these magnets are made by placing ...

One could do an experiment similar to the Levitated Dipole, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levitated_Dipole . However, it would have a loss cone similar to a mirror machine because the magnetic field lines go through the solid magnet. Why would the field lines go through a permanent magnet any mo...

According to Bussard 1991 , magnetic field strengths of 0.1 to 0.5 T are all that's needed for a small polywell reactor. That's well within the range achievable by permanent magnets. Permanent magnets offer a number of advantages over electromagnets: • no ohmic heating issues; easy to run in steady-...

One often raised objection is that Dr.Bussard was often wrong, and cite ringatron and his ramjet as examples. Now, I'd like to know how much bullshit regarding the ramjet is the Doctor's and how much is from sci-fi authors that took the idea and ran with it. For example, did Dr.Bussard truly propos...

Paul Dietz posted some comments about polywell fusion in the sci.energy newsgroup (about halfway down this thread ). To quote: Let me summarize why Polywell is unlikely to work, at least with p-11B. First, you CANNOT have a near-neutral plasma in the central interaction zone. If you do, then either ...

You need to do a Favicon too! That's a good point; I hadn't even thought of that. I know how to do one, though, so it's just a matter of coming up with something legible in 16x16 pixels. I'll probably try taking the 6-ring rendering in the top-of-page logo and scaling it down. Thanks for the sugges...