Recovery.Gov Project Tracker

[KitemanSA]

Unfortunately Polywell seems to be kinda stuck in the financial catch 22:

Most of the basic science is already done....

Have the experimental results testing Bussard's model been published in peer-reviewed journals that appear in science citation index? If so, did those experimental results match the predictions of Bussard's model within error tolerances that aren't so wide as to render the results virtually worthless?

If both of those conditions have not been met, then you can't say that "the basic science is already done". Science doesn't operate as a classified project. It is open, by definition, because independent replication demands disclosure to independent parties.

Right, and the Manhattan Project wasn't science. Meadow Muffins.

[KitemanSA]

The board results are just not made public, other than funding decisions which we get to see on FPDS.

Unless the project has gone TRULY black, in which case the funding can be hidden any number of ways.

[ladajo]

The board results are just not made public, other than funding decisions which we get to see on FPDS.

Unless the project has gone TRULY black, in which case the funding can be hidden any number of ways.

Agreed. But in that case we may get a glimpse via the next Snowden...

Odds are IMO, they are not black. Maybe they should be if it is really going to work, but even that would be hard to hide once we went to implement. May not be worth the effort or expense. It is not like anyone is going to not notice a ship that does not burn oil. That said, the advantage would be to not give away the tech. Just like NNPI.

[DeltaV]

Useless eaters!

Did you really think we would share Polywell with you?



Edit: Fixed image link (after 3 tries) that went dead in under 10 minutes. Hit a nerve?

[paperburn1]

There has been some very interesting hiring going on in Idaho. you don't suppose?......

[hanelyp]

If the Navy Polywell project has gone black, the next sign we see may relate to a ship using the device. It'd be hard to build or convert a fusion powered ship and keep it completely secret once it goes operational.

[KitemanSA]

If the Navy Polywell project has gone black, the next sign we see may relate to a ship using the device. It'd be hard to build or convert a fusion powered ship and keep it completely secret once it goes operational.

A ship is not my main thought. How bout an intercontinental, hypersonic cruise missile? That could stay black for quite a while. We could eliminate all our ballistic missiles and still be able to strike. Hmm.

[DeltaV]

If the Navy Polywell project has gone black, the next sign we see may relate to a ship using the device.

Ship?

[choff]

They could probably hide it in a sub, maybe even from a lot of the crew.

[mvanwink5]

Remember the sub that had a billion dollars worth of damage when an electrical contract worker wanted a weekend off? He set fire to a mattress on board the sub? Get General Dynamics to do a D-D retrofit.

PS I don't know if he got that weekend off.

[paperburn1]

I bet he got a whole bunch of weekends off....

[KitemanSA]

I bet he got a whole bunch of weekends off....

My understanding is that he just may get many years of weekends at hard labor.

[ladajo]

Remember the sub that had a billion dollars worth of damage when an electrical contract worker wanted a weekend off? He set fire to a mattress on board the sub? Get General Dynamics to do a D-D retrofit.

PS I don't know if he got that weekend off.

Latest word is that Big Navy says they have no money to fix the damage. Boat will be decommissioned.

[classicpenny]

...they need more money for the raw engineering crunch and larger prototype. But DoD can't give them $100 million or more cash as required for that, because that DoE would get involved, and DoE would say that Polywell can't work, and DoE would block larger funding.

This has been conventional wisdom at "talk-polywell" for a number of years. I believe it myself, but I have to ask: how do we know that this is still true?

If we can't back up such statements with facts we start to sound like conspiracy lunatics to people outside of the "talk-polywell" circle....and some of these people are senators and congressmen.

[mvanwink5]

Presumably, WB-8 testing should by now enable EMC2 Polywell researchers to counter previous (believed) assertions that it can't work. However, the research results are not available to anyone out of the classified loop. Where this is going from here is the drama. (My take on it).