We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
«  
  »

Polywell Status

· Science & Technology

Not a lot of news coming out but I found this news on the Polywell Fusion reactor testing.

500 shots so far. A long way to go, but Dr. Bussard’s concepts have now survived quite a lot of testing. There is probably a lot more interesting information behind the scenes, but the US Navy Office of Naval Research prefers they not talk a lot.

I wish them success because it changes everything for all of us if they do succeed on the final hurdle of creating a working fusion generator.

November 12th, 2011 |

9 comments to Polywell Status

  • David Roberts
    November 12, 2011 at 10:15 am

    Here is another possibility, http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-10/29/rossi-success.
    I think there are some other fusion approaches as well, although I don’t have much hope for a Tokamak.
    If none of these work to generate our future energy, then Thorium fission may.

  • Mike Borgelt
    November 13, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    I wouldn’t get too excited about Rossi. It requires us to have misunderstood nuclear reactions seriously. Scam.

    Polywell doesn’t break any currently known laws of physics and the only serious objection to it working came from Rider who thinks the bremsstralungen will lose energy faster than the device can make it. Others say he is wrong. Polywell looks to me to be by far the most hopeful of the unconventional fusion approaches.

  • 'Nuke' Gray
    November 14, 2011 at 4:42 am

    So should I stock up on Deuterium?
    Also, instead of banging two beams of deuterium together, why don’t they use four beams of pure hydrogen, and hope that two protons will convert to neutrons?
    Third, and last, question- pure hydrogen shouldn’t become radioactive, because of the simple structure of the nucleus- so shouldn’t hydrogen be the ideal fuel for nuclear-powered spaceships?

  • John
    November 15, 2011 at 11:17 am

    It is amazing that the huge breakthroughs by the UK in fusion power are just ignored. The real action on fusion will occur in the International “Iter Reactor” . Take a look at the link. The British role in fusion research seems to be as little appreciated as our space research. It is hilarious that in 1971 the British media were unanimous in declaring that there was no future in space industries (now worth hundreds of billions annually).

  • Dale Amon
    November 15, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    First off, many of us think of the giant international fusion power projects as welfare for physicists. They do not strike me as very likely to ever turn out a useful commercial product.

    Second off, British scientists and entrepreneurs like Richard Branson have been neck deep in the commercial space revolution. The first tourist space ship will be American built, British funded and carries the name of a British mum: Eve, mother of Richard.

  • Paul Marks
    November 15, 2011 at 7:42 pm

    People have been working on fusion reactors since the 1950s – and the results, thus far, have been deeply disappointing.

    However, if any of the approaches being tried produce a workable economic reactor design – that actually goes into mass production around the world.

    Such a development would change ……

    Well it would change just about everything.

    All bets would be off.

  • 'Nuke' Gray
    November 15, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    Paul, it would change very little, because someone, somewhere, would ban it! We wouldn’t want our precious sources of hydrogen to be used up, would we? they’d need to be conserved and studied, and have impact statements produced by the ton/ne first!

«  
  »