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Bussard Fusion results were positive A hat tip to Counting Cats for the report. Jeff Foust has the story here.
I have been waiting for this news, as have many others, for months. Peer review of the test results have shown no reason why the technology will not work, although Dr. Nebel is quick to point out that nothing in the results guarantees it either.
Now… onwards to the next set of tests!
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Sheesh, this story, minutes after release, is spreading like wildfire.
That’s because a lot of folk like me have been turning blue from holding our breath for 6 months!
Why do you think that “Bussard Fusion” is my only Google alert?
Dale, do you have an opinion on Blacklight(Link)?
I would be interested in your take.
I read a bunch of their papers a long time ago. I really don’t think it is going to amount to anything.
Does this mean we should stock up on Deuterium? When can I order my spacer, and what will it cost me? I know I’ll probably need to wait a year, but I’m patient!
I guess I must be a jaded skeptic but I just don’t understand the excitement. All the article seems to be saying is that they haven’t found any reason why the proposal won’t work. That seems to be about as far as you can get from having something real working.
Am I misreading here? If there’s merit to this go and build it – don’t tell me it’s “5 years away and all we need is more funding”
Seems the budget required for further research is peanuts, why doesn’t some company or venture capital jump on it? Why do they wait for the Navy or Obama ?
I believe they accept donations on their web site if you wish to help…
Ian,
There was some work (Rider etc) which indicated this could not possibly work so finding that there’s no reason for it not to work is significant progress.
This still reminds me of early jet engine development. Actually making a jet engine that self sustains was originally a problem and even after working ones had been demonstrated some were built which would not self sustain until significant modifications were performed.
Well, it’s looking pretty certain that Tokamak is never going to be viable, so unless some approach like this does turn out to be viable, we’re probably screwed.
I’ve ready Bussards work on the concept, watched his presentation to Google, and been tracking Nebel’s work on the polywell fusion forum. Its pretty clear that Bussard did get fusion or a ‘fusion-like-reaction’ producing 100,000 times more output than any previous fusor device. He apparently figured out how to overcome the losses issues of prior experimenters (read the reports, Im not going to educate you here). Nebel has replicated his results. Nebel is VERY necessarily conservative and stoic about this in order to avoid cries of sensationalism, he seems to be the sort that lets the results speak for themselves.
Now, while He3 is NOT the fuel of choice for this device, the main two choices are: D-D and Boron11-proton fusion. The B11-P fusion is actually the most low radiation reaction, and boron being pretty common vs Deuterium, makes for a cheap fuel.
Reactor size: 3 meter diameter core for a 100 megawatt power plant, according to Bussard and Nebels specs.
Finally for the rocketheads: Bussard theorized that this sort of reactor would provide a propulsion capability for both LAUNCHERS AND SPACECRAFT: 1000 times the thrust at the same Isp as chemical engines of similar size, or 1000 times the Isp at the same thrust. Imagine having a space shuttle with main engines producing 400k LBs thrust and 400,000 sec ISP. To the Moon, Alice!
Well, it’s looking pretty certain that Tokamak is never going to be viable, so unless some approach like this does turn out to be viable, we’re probably screwed.
So it’s not just me. If you go to ITER’s website, you find they’re not even planning to generate electricity. That’s for the next demonstration project, and following that we could build actual power stations. Maybe. Except to be efficient they’ll have to be so large and expensive nobody could build one.
When I was a child, many decades and billions of dollars ago, magnetic confinement power plants were 30 years away. Now the ITER people are saying 2050 at the earliest. Meaning much later than that, if ever.
My uneducated but interested layman guess is that a Tokamak is one of those things that can be built but isn’t worth building practically. It’ll never be more than a hugely expensive curiosity. I love The Museum Of Retrotechnology. It’s full of things (much less expensive things than tokamaks, mind) that either could be made but weren’t worth making, or could nearly be made but the bugs are impossible to iron out and so on like the glorious Gyrosocopic Monorail and rotary steam engines. I tend to think of ITER as a vast version of them.
I don’t know if you have seen this:
Steampunk Fusion
I was very sceptical for a long time and then looked at the technical specs that were finally provided and have come to the conclusion that it could work as a stationary power plant.
Not a sure thing by any means. But no impossibilities either.
Think of a reciprocating marine steam engine on steroids.
Fusion for space power? Bussard/Polywell all the way.