LPP is crowdfunding fusion

[Ivy Matt]

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/focu ... todos=true

The aim of the crowdfunding effort is to raise $200,000 within 40 days, to go towards the purchase of the beryllium electrodes needed for net gain experiments with hydrogen-boron fuel. After a successful conclusion to this crowdfunding effort, LPP should be able to conduct these experiments within the next 12-18 months.

[hanelyp]

If you're doing experiments with a boron-proton plasma a boron coated electrode would seem attractive.

[Ivy Matt]

Unfortunately for that application, the electrode needs to be a good conductor, and boron isn't.

[hanelyp]

Which is why I said coated. A thick enough layer of boron to prevent whatever more conductive core material is used from contaminating the plasma.

[paperburn1]

Not being an expert, but how would you overcome the erosion problem?

[happyjack27]

if you coat it with a thick layer of chocolate, not only would that protect the electrode from paschen discharge AND oxidation, it would also make the whole contraption much tastier.

[rjaypeters]

I gave $100.

[zapkitty]

Eric Lerner of LPP willl be a guest speaker of the Oxford University Scientific Society on Wednesday, May 14th.

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~science/

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~science/termcard.shtml

[D Tibbets]

The conductivity of the electrode is important so that you can get a huge current of electricity from it into the gas to ionize the gas very quickly and to subsequently drive the pinch. Anything that provides relative insulation (less conductivity) impedes this, perhaps to significant amounts.

Oxygen should not be an issue as there should be almost none in the chamber.

My impression is that the beryllium electrodes are necessary not due to the conductivity of the electrode directly, but because of x-rays. The Bremsstruhlung produced with the pinch may be enough, even in a research machine, to quickly erode the electrode through heating as the x-rays are absorbed. It is the low x-ray absorption by beryllium that is attractive. A coating of a higher molecular weight substance, even boron would result in more surface x-ray heating, more melting, sputtering, erosion, etc. Beryllium not only has a small X-ray absorption cross section, but it is a high temperature tolerant material. That is why it was used in the Space Shuttle wheel brakes- lite, hard (?), and heat tolerant. Unfortunately, it is toxic and I understand difficult to machine, thus the high cost.

Dan Tibbets

[Ivy Matt]

Thanks Dan, that's what I thought. LPP has been using copper electrodes because of its conductivity. Very soon they'll be switching to tungsten electrodes for the experimental campaign this summer. The tungsten is because of its high temperature tolerance, I believe, which will hopefully keep the plasma impurities down. The beryllium electrodes are for when they begin testing with heavier gases (and producing lots of X-rays).

[happyjack27]

they just got slashdotted. http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/0 ... owdfunding

[toddzilla]

I hope their crowd funding effort pays off. $200,000 seems like such a small investment to test boron fusion. I'm certainly more confident giving my money to Lerner than Rossi! Lol. Plus, I've always wanted some ferrofluid.

[D Tibbets]

Which is why I said coated. A thick enough layer of boron to prevent whatever more conductive core material is used from contaminating the plasma.

A surface insulator will slow/ impede the transmission of the current carried in the bulk of the electrode, through the surface of the electrode and into the forming plasma. It is this process happening very quickly that generates the magnetic plasma that collapses rapidly to form the pinch. Insulation is bad (I think).
Now, if you could develop some ceramic that is doped with good electrical conductors, that might be a possibility for the best compromise between conductivity and endurance. Short of that, it seems that tungsten metal electrodes is the best compromise at this stage. Tungsten is a fair conductor, though as it heats up it's resistance goes up rapidly. That is useful in incandescence lighting. In a DPF it is bad, but of course in a research machine where shots are only occasional, the heating problem is minimized.

Dan Tibbets

[Ivy Matt]

And...it's over. LPP raised $180,279 in 60 days, just over 90% of their $200,000 goal. Because this was an IndieGoGo campaign, LPP will be able to keep the funds they raised (Kickstarter is all or nothing, I believe), but because they didn't meet their goal, IndieGoGo will take 9% of the earnings, instead of the 3% they would have taken from a successful campaign. I believe the $180,279 doesn't include the $2211 (or more) raised via Bitcoin and the $156.38 (or more) raised via Dogecoin, and it doesn't include $135,000 raised from investors during the crowdfunding campaign. So, altogether LPP has probably raised something like $300,000, which should be sufficient to purchase the beryllium electrodes, with a bit to spare. However, LPP estimates their operating expenses over the next year will be about $1,000,000. Hopefully they can raise that money from investors: their existing investors, new ones brought on by this campaign, and (if Congress and/or the SEC stop dragging their heels) investors of more-or-less average wealth.

[Carl White]

Beats me why they had to claw every inch of the way for that $180,000, while other proposals (some of which are plainly ridiculous) are over-funded in a flash. People have strange priorities.