Talk-Polywell.org

Related to the recent news about the Series F investments, TechCrunch has an article on Helion: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/28/helion-raises-425m-to-help-build-a-fusion-reactor-for-microsoft/ “In AI, what’s the big challenge? Getting the chips. In fusion, what’s the big challenge? Getting the chi...

Why do the vacuum vessels need to be quartz? I mean, I like it that they are, but is there any practical advantage over solid metal vessels?

I don't know how long this has been around, but I just saw a YouTube advertisement for something called EcoHeat, supposedly invented by a bright high school student named "Martin" to help heat his school after it failed to receive approval for a badly-needed new heating system. However, in the accom...

There haven't been any updates on the LPP website since May, but their crowdfunding effort is ongoing. They've passed their first milestone of $100,000, and have set a new target of $200,000 by the end of July. Also, they posted this to their Wefunder page: https://wefunder.com/updates/165053-dense-...

I wasn't expecting another report so soon, but it looks like one was published mid-month: Part 1 Part 2 Part 1 consists of a call for funding, a press mention of an LPPFusion spin-off idea, and coverage of the TAE/LHD p-B11 experiments. The major takeaways are that their paper was published on March...

"On two occasions, I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ― Charles Babbage

November 30 report December 30 report The upshot of both reports is that LPPFusion has been testing an updated switch design testbed, and the results have been promising. LPPFusion is optimistic that this switch design will enable them to fire FF-2B at a high enough current, and with enough simulta...

Equally important, the entire spectrum from 300 nm to 800 nm shows only the lines of deuterium, beryllium, oxygen and nitrogen - no heavier elements are present at all. The nitrogen is not an impurity but is deliberately introduced as a mixing gas for experimental purposes . Now, that's news I've b...

The news appears to be that KSTAR "broke its own record". You might think that meant it held the previous record, and that ought to be a reasonable assumption.

Lawyers, politicians, and headline writers.

From the referenced SCMP article:

Lead researcher Zhang Zhe predicts a new generation of large-scale laser facilities will be finished or near completion in China by 2026.

These efforts aim to scale the pinch current, plasma density, and plasma temperature to reach scientific breakeven equivalent conditions by early 2023 in the next generation device FuZE-Q, which is currently being commissioned. I'm guessing this means that they expect to achieve conditions with DD ...

LLNL has announced that on August 8 the National Ignition Facility achieved a fusion yield of more than 1.3 megajoules. This is not quite ignition, but it is getting there. Omar Hurricane is quoted as saying, "To me, this is a Wright Brothers moment," which is what's making the headlines , but he al...

Dr. Jaeyoung Park is a co-author of the paper, and his affiliation is given as "TAE Technologies, Inc." When did that happen?

Also, with lower Z brehmstralung should be lower, so the plasma would heat up faster, other things equal. That could be a compelling reason to test with D+He3. My understanding is that Bremsstrahlung is supposed to be minimized by the quantum magnetic field effect, but LPPFusion hasn't yet reached ...

I asked a similar question (though not specifically about He3) a long time ago on the Focus Fusion forums. I forget exactly what the answer is, but my understanding of the fuel situation is this: deuterium (what LPP has been using) is useful mainly for diagnostic purposes because it produces neutron...