Talk-Polywell.org

Hi,

I was reading the FOIA thread from back in January (which sadly, apparently resulted in exactly 0 pages of docs being released, it sounded like).

It got me to wondering - I certainly can understand EMC2 not wanting to put too much technical detail out there yet (because they may be planning to file some new patents in the next year or two, and don't want someone using the results of their research to beat them to it) - but, is there any *general* info available about the Navy contracts?

Like, for example what were/are the basic goals for WB-7? WB-7.1? WB-8? Are any of them going to be designed to run the aneutronic P-B11 reaction instead of the Deuterium reaction? Did any of them have the explicit goal of being able to run in continuous operation for some set period of time (hour, day, week), and produce a certain specified power output during that entire operation?

I ask because, even though it would, I'm sure, be good if more detailed technical info were available, I think it reasonable to surmise that if the Navy is going ahead with WB-8 this year, then that probably means that the previous versions were basically successful at their goals, so it would be nice to at least know what the goals were?

Yes, there's actually some good general info in those.

There's a couple threads on the contracts and RFPs themselves. Can't think of a handy keyword offhand, maybe just "contract" or "solicitation." Links to the docs are in there somewhere.

To answer your questions: WB-7 vetted WB-6 and gave us some additional diagnostic data. WB-8 has an add-on contract to try p-B11.

Continuous operation isn't considered a big obstable -- the physics are all too fast (sub-millisecond) for that to matter much, and one of the early WBs (4?) did continuous operation already.

The power outputs are tiny so far -- WB-6/7 produced around .001 watts, WB-8 will produce around 8W. Those will be over milliseconds or less.

Yes, the awarding of the WB-8 contract is perhaps the only real metric we have for success; that was after an expert panel reviewed the WB-7 results. Perhaps most auspiciously, the WB-8 contract asks for a net power reactor design, which might be built if WB-8 results are sufficiently promising. That says the reviewers see a plausible path to net power in the next few years.

The next thing to watch for is whether the Navy picks up the WB-8.1 p-B11 option. I think that happens in about a year (the date is in one of those earlier threads). If they don't, that probably means WB-8 results were disappointing.

If they ask for the reactor in the design to actually be built -- well.

WB7.1
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity ... e&_cview=1

WB 8
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity ... e&_cview=0

I believe that these and other similar documents are referenced in the wikipedia Polywell article.