Talk-Polywell.org

And they did it again: US scientists achieve net energy gain for second time in nuclear fusion reaction

I was slightly worried that last December's scientific break-even could be a fluke. Glad it was not.

How long until the next group gets there. A couple years? More? Less? We'll see.

I suppose it depends on how you define "substantially new" ... I think you want to consider Polaris the Wright Flyer but it might just as well be fair enough to call IPA-C the Wright Flyer Well, the Wright Flyer was the first to meet all the main goals for a powered, heavier than air, flying machin...

Hope you are right Skipjack, but I'm still unsure. I'm trying not to trick myself into thinking that I know what I don't know. Thing is, Helion has not been exactly open about their lasts results, and they have hardly given any details of their future designs either. It's their right but that means ...

I think, at the beginning, fusion will supplant this mad race to put solar panels and wind turbines everywhere We wish, but I have my doubts. In these forums most may know a bit more about fusion than the average Joe, but few can call themselves experts. Knowing enough to be hopeful, but not enough...

I'd like fusion to become the world preferred new energy source before the end of this decade but, even if we think that break-even is almost here, I'm afraid that's unrealistic. Personally, I'm almost sure we'll reach break-even in this decade (scientific, no doubt, and also wall-plug if Helion doe...

When last January Real Engineering published "A New Way to Achieve Nuclear Fusion: Helion" in Youtube, he said they had some extra material, but they did not make it freely available at the moment. That material was published in DailyMotion a few days ago with free access. For those interested, here...

If Helion can report even just a high Q with D-T (not even net electricity) at that point, the rest of the fusion world will go crazy. Exactly my thinking. I've studied the formulas Dr Kirtley included in his last year Princeton presentation. I wanted to try to reproduce the power density graphs in...

Thank you for the link Skipjack. It is nice to be able to position Helion's results on the general fusion landscape (Helion machines are not mentioned, but it is easy to add their known/estimated figures to the main graphs). On the other hand, too many Qs. This paper defines no less than 7, and othe...

I have a doubt regarding the definition of Q in Helion presentations. Are they using a different definition than the standard ? As I understand it, the usual definition is: Q_plasma = E_fusion / E_injected While Helion seems to define it as: Q_plasma = (E_frc + E_fusion) / E_frc (where E_frc is the ...

Did you remember to add back the 90%+ of the energy put in that is recovered? Yes, I did. It is not that, but I have an idea. One of the numbers Skipjack gave in one of his last posts had me thinking. The problem with not having enough hard data is that I had to make assumptions about some paramete...

Thank you for the inside data, Skipjack, for people like me there are never enough numbers :wink: Let me say that I am not taking Improbable Matter's side any time soon, I'm just a fan of physics, fusion in particular, someone that takes pleasure in trying to understand as much as I can about these ...

Glad to hear confirmation that Helion is going to try D-T in Polaris because, after playing with their own equations for a few days, I've been unable to find a combination of parameters that result in net electricity production using D-3He (in that machine), or anywhere near. Of course, I'm no fusio...

Another sign that commercial fusion is not "30 years away" anymore.

I saw it too. It was originally filed in in February 2014, just a year after the creation of Helion, and granted in 2015. Since starting Helion, Dr. Kirtley has filed a bunch of patents related with electrical and other subsystems derived from his work on fusion, and also a number of non related art...

Yeah, I know the feeling. Most of my family, friends and co-workers, ... no, scratch that, ALL of my family, friends and co-workers are as interested in this field (and other aspects of science) as my dog. What a pity that Polywell, the machine that brought me here, ended by starvation ... and that ...