Search found 145 matches

by TheRadicalModerate
Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:02 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Fusion Will Never Work
Replies: 83
Views: 30432

However, I think Dittmar is not considering the fact that countries like Japan are already using the complete Plutonium fuel cycle in that they already have commercial FBRs. Japan has a closed fuel cycle (i.e. they reprocess to produce MOX fuel assemblies) but their FBR program isn't really part of...
by TheRadicalModerate
Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:02 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Fusion Will Never Work
Replies: 83
Views: 30432

Re: Dittmar is biased

Uranium fuel shortage is the basis for Dittmar thesis of nuclear fission will not be able to expand. No uranium shortage. Let me poke at this a bit, just to play Devil's Advocate: Dittmar doesn't claim that the current production shortfall is the long-term problem. Instead, he claims that the infer...
by TheRadicalModerate
Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:38 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Fusion Will Never Work
Replies: 83
Views: 30432

Please excuse the silly question: But, since we do not have any working fusion reactors yet, where do we get our tritium from right now? I would suspect fission reactions. So if that works now, why would that be a problem for future fusion reactors? Heavy-water fission reactors. There are a couple ...
by TheRadicalModerate
Sat Nov 21, 2009 3:56 am
Forum: News
Topic: Fusion Will Never Work
Replies: 83
Views: 30432

Would not the fission/fusion hybrid concept (LIFE) be the way to get around this problem? Certainly fission reactions are used to breed Tritium. Most of Dittmar's objections would seem to apply to any D-T fusion reaction, so the hybrid approach will only work if the Li6 is receiving neutrons from f...
by TheRadicalModerate
Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:47 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Fusion Will Never Work
Replies: 83
Views: 30432

Wow, that whole thing is pretty grim. Two things jump out at me from the whole 4-part series: First, he's taking really big swipes at the Red Book with minimal evidence but, if he's right, this is the most cogent case against fission investment that I've seen. More relevant to fusion development, th...
by TheRadicalModerate
Thu Nov 12, 2009 5:15 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Polywell's current patent application.
Replies: 48
Views: 22221

Or it might be that they have learned enough new stuff to realize that the patent as applied for does not protect the important stuff well enough to be worth pursuing. Then they could modify the application! But to abandon it? There are limits on what you can modify without getting into restriction...
by TheRadicalModerate
Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:20 am
Forum: Theory
Topic: Bussard's bremsstrahlung calculation
Replies: 109
Views: 43302

Why should the sheath be electron rich? (And why should it matter?) There is nothing to keep the ions from expanding to the same radius as the electrons (They don't see the B field much, remember?), and their inertia will force them to expand a little bit beyond the electrons. The outermost layers ...
by TheRadicalModerate
Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:24 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: Magnetically Shielded Fusor Grids--Why Won't This Work?
Replies: 64
Views: 23048

Why do fusors have to run a higher pressure? Why can't they run at low enough pressures that there's very little ion background?
by TheRadicalModerate
Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:20 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: Bussard's bremsstrahlung calculation
Replies: 109
Views: 43302

I've pondered this a bit. The "reflections" will not be specular, I do not think. Due to the interaction with the strong electric field gradient orthogonal to the magnetic field lines at the wiffle-edge the electrons will return to the interior with greater angles than they arrived on the average, ...
by TheRadicalModerate
Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:11 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: Bussard's bremsstrahlung calculation
Replies: 109
Views: 43302

I have never heard R. Nebel chime in with his opinion. Dr Nebel told me that in the my video Fusion for Dummies, the electron paths of one cusp to the other cusp was wrong. I would then put Dr Nebel in the same cusp group. Still seems to me that whether they re-enter (fall back) through the same cu...
by TheRadicalModerate
Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:17 am
Forum: Theory
Topic: Bussard's bremsstrahlung calculation
Replies: 109
Views: 43302

In addition to what TallDave said, consider the Wiffle ball as a solid near spherical ball with very small holes in it (the cusps). The electrons that have a speed high enough that thier gyroradius is much larger than the magnetic field gradient see the border effectively as a solid wall that it bo...
by TheRadicalModerate
Sun Jul 12, 2009 1:18 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: Bussard's bremsstrahlung calculation
Replies: 109
Views: 43302

This convergence results in the electrons repelling each other- they slow to a stop near the center, then reverse and accelerate to the magnetic field border where they reverse and start over again. What is the mechanism for this reversal and re-acceleration back towards the center? As far as I can...
by TheRadicalModerate
Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:47 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: Magnetically Shielded Fusor Grids--Why Won't This Work?
Replies: 64
Views: 23048

So, to summarize the last 3 pages of this melee, we have three fundamental sources of loss in a fusor: 1) Fuel ions thermalizing. 2) Grid discharges to the wall. 3) Ion collisions with the grid. Of these, chrismb is putting up a spirited defense that #3 doesn't swamp the other 2 sources of loss, and...
by TheRadicalModerate
Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:40 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: Magnetically Shielded Fusor Grids--Why Won't This Work?
Replies: 64
Views: 23048

Magnetically Shielded Fusor Grids--Why Won't This Work?

So, we know that fusors with grids won't generate net power because the ions collide with the grid before they transit the center enough times to fuse, and that those collisions fry the grid pretty quickly, too. But we've just spent a whole bunch of time engineering a magrid that prevents electrons ...
by TheRadicalModerate
Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:22 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: Bussard's bremsstrahlung calculation
Replies: 109
Views: 43302

Remember that once any charged particle is inside the magrid it does not see any electric field from it ( actually my understanding is that the field is present, but that the oposite sides tug equally so that the net effective field is zero). The potential on the magrid (see above) serves two purpo...