Small Tri Alpha news blurp

[Skipjack]

The machine in the first figure looks a lot like Lockheed Martin's design.

Lockmart did borrow the neutral beam injection from Tri Alphas design. But TAs reactor is much more elongated and collides two FRCs in the center, where they hope to keep the plasma in a steady state, at least for a few seconds, from what I hear. Right now they are still far away from that.

[crowberry]

TAE has published a 16 page paper in Physics of Plasmas on the 15th of May. This paper is discussed by Daniel Clery in Science and it was also referenced also on Slashdot.

A high performance field-reversed configuration

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/jo ... /1.4920950

Mystery company blazes a trail in fusion energy

http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2015 ... ion-energy

[mvanwink5]

Papers are always old news and a significant step (or two) behind current test results. For current test results one has to either be an insider, has mind reading capability, or hears quality rumors (oxymoron?) For instance, based on a late 2014 statement on project plans, significant results from C2U were supposed to have been demonstrated first half of this year, "work starts on C2U in February and has to wrap up by summer 2015," which, unless researchers use language the same way as utility maintenance planners, would mean C2U results would be in.

But, based on the old news is for the masses schedule I will hear what happened in the C2U testing sometime in mid 2016. Better than 'Main Stream Media' though which would get the old news even later and interpreted by an ITER narrative.

[Skipjack]

So, it seems like Tri Alpha is aiming to get 1 second confinement time next year. I am not sure whether they got the funding they need for this or not. It seems like they are having trouble convincing their investors to put more money in.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/08/tri-al ... .html#more

[mvanwink5]

It seems like they are having trouble convincing their investors to put more money in.

I think the issue is the step change in investment required for a significantly larger sized machine. It is an issue all fringe fusion machines will face unless overwhelming science and experience backs down the worry of plasma scaling unpredictability.

General Fusion has their full scale in pieces approach, but I wonder about all the other fusion machines, even Tri Alpha.

[crowberry]

Did you watch the video accompanying Daniel Clerys article in Science? There is a nice photo of C-2U at right angle to the long axis, a picture from the control room and a plot showing the plasmoid radius as a function of time for three different cases. The progress is seen in the plot as the constant plasmoid radius in the case of C-2U. This is the link to the video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm6hpqFtxEk

Says one investor in the company, who asked not to be named, “for the first time since we started investing, with this breakthrough it feels like the stone is starting to roll downhill rather than being pushed up it.”

I would interpret this statement that it would be easier than previously for TAE to get continued support from their investors.

[mvanwink5]

Yes, very encouraging, looks like Tri Alpha got the success from C-2U they were hoping for.

[D Tibbets]

Another snippet of information concerning Tri Alpha's FRC.
Apparently they have gotten the temperature up to ~ 1KeV. This may be almost 10 times higher than previous temperatures I was aware of. Still a ways to go but definatly an improvement. The reported confinement time of the plasma of ~ 10 milliseconds also sounds encouraging. Of course this needs to be compared to the target density- the triple product considerations. If they are doing this at some relatively low density it means less than if they are operating near relatively high densities.

The mention of needed temperatures 300 times higher (~ 3 GeV) certainly may apply to P-B11 fusion. Lower temperatures would be needed for D-T, D-D or even D-He3 reactions.

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-tri-alpha- ... rtant.html



In a linked article from this site, additional perspective on the energies of the P-B11 alpha energy distribution, there are two higher energy alphas and one lower energy alphas, instead of the inverse. This has been hinted at before, but this may be more definitive. The total KE is still ~ 8.9 MeV but the direct conversion of only one energy level (such as with a single energy capture electrode at the higher alpha energy ) or via a hetrodyne process (?). With multiple staged electrode energy capture this would seem to be less important- eg- using 10 electrodes at lower voltages- aka the picket fence or venation blind arrangement of sub voltage electrodes.

This may have some significance on ignition machines, but not on Polywells or FRC(?). Is the Tri Alpha approach an ignition machine? It would result in a modest longer time for the bulk of the alphas to thermalize with the fuel plasma.

http://phys.org/news/2011-04-overturned ... -news.html


Dan Tibbets

[303]

http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2015 ... eakthrough

[crowberry]

Here is an article on Tri Alpha Energy with some nice photographs like the one above, Tri Alpha Energy takes small step toward huge goal of fusion reactor by Aaron Orlowski. The article has more details on TAE than most of the ones following Daniel Clerys article in Science.

Binderbauer says Tri Alpha has been careful to meticulously document its progress and actively dispel any hype. Its scientists have published dozens of papers in various respected journals about technical aspects of its project. The company is only now slowly opening its laboratory doors to the media.

Maybe we will see at some time a TAE website?

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/ener ... -step.html

[mvanwink5]

A 75 foot long machine... a big foot for a 'small step'.

[Skipjack]

Those neutral beam injectors are huge! It is interesting how much bigger TAEs machine is than anything the competition is doing.

[mvanwink5]

Maybe GF needs to use neutral beam injectors for their plasma injectors?

[crowberry]

Michel Tuszewski from Tri Alpha Energy will give a seminar at MIT:

October 16
Michel Tuszewski
Tri-Alpha Energy
Recent FRC Experiments on the C-2U Devices

All Seminars are on Friday at 3PM,unless otherwise noted.
NW17-218, 175 Albany Street, Cambridge
For further information, info@psfc.mit.edu

https://www.psfc.mit.edu/news/seminars.html

[crowberry]

Tri Alpha Energy has a nice website with a wealth of papers and talks http://www.trialphaenergy.com/.