Talk-Polywell.org

A combination of high cost for proposed AGW solutions (coupled with a worldwide deep recession), FOI request laws, and speed due to internet blogs (countering hijacked peer review by proponents) could change the outcome of the pessimistic prediction. (my hope)

Navy contract states circular coils for WB-8. Perhaps another FOI request would flush out what has been built.

What would be the minimum specs for demonstrating PB-11 fusion wrt polyhedral size, B field and MG voltage? Any ideas?

This presentation implies WB-8 is a dodecahedron. Is it the general view here that that is what was built for the Navy contract? Assuming same 30 cm coil size as WB-7 and improved geometry, what would be the expected power be as compared to WB-7? My wag is assuming approximately doubling of the diam...

KitemanSA, Ok, I can see how the plumbing could work, but someone else will have to run the flows, pressure drop and heat loading. Also rather than require a slinky twist to the SC wire, it would seem that the SC bundle could be made with a slight roll in the coils. That could be verified by testing...

KitemanSA, After thinking about the continuous SC winding, one pass per coil, through the nub to the next coil, etc, until all coils get one pass, then repeat until the turns required are met, I think it would be doable. Also the nubs would get full complement of turns. I can't see how the coolant p...

This is my stab at putting some reason to the nubs versus wall supports comparison: Comparing the cross sections of nubs and wall supports exposed to circulating electrons should take into account the density of the circulating electrons as well as total exposed area. Because the nubs and wall suppo...

Serpentine coils shown above are basically coils with magnetically protected nubs. I am not sure that it is necessary to magnetically protect the nubs at high B fields. But other than that I see no issue with the serpentine magrid as shown above as long as giro radii criteria is met.

I am assuming that the wall supports are not exposed metal. Ceramic bushings can be quite strong. If you observe sometime some 230 kv transmission lines are built with freestanding horizontal line insulators that support quite heavy line loads. Further, power conversion grids will have to be support...

Ok, here is what I am thinking: dodecahedron topology 1 m toroid coils run at 10 T (20 - 25 cm coil thickness, 60 - 50 cm bore, which exceeds msimon's minimum bore of 10 radii from alpha radiation cooling point of view). inside dodecahedron diameter about 2 m (assumes 6 -8 radii gap between adjacent...

ladajo re: "I've seen a couple of plasma balls eat some hardware, always humbling and spectacular at the same time." Yes, always humbling and awesome. It seems to me the ceramic insulators would be suitable as they were used as bottom supports for WB6. What else could be used? If there is an issue o...

Also wouldn't smaller solenoid coils be easier to cool, be mechanically stronger, and have less thermal expansion issues? There would be more supports (each coil with wall supports housing plumbing feeds, and electrical conductors), but the supports wouldn't be stressed as much, it would seem. From ...

KitemanSA re: "The prime reason I have been looking for other polyhedra is the question of sphericity. MSimon believes that any lacking of sphericity can be made up by additional size; and for terrestrial use, I concur 100%. But trying to squeeze things into ships, submarines, and spacecraft can mak...

Just some thoughts and musing: Scaling will illuminate different issues at different stages. Any thoughts as to how that would play out? (The earlier problems are discovered the lower the cost in solving them.) Scaling is dependent on science and engineering details, so at what point will engineerin...

Simon, re: "I think 1 mW - 10 W - 100 MW is about as extreme a I'd like to go. The trouble with a progression like that is that the devices are so mechanically different that you can't build much off your previous devices. You go from a device where cooling is not a consideration to one where coolin...

From the article, I thought this was interesting: "A newly installed microwave interferometer array, developed by MIT graduate student Alex Boxer PhD '09, was used to make the precision measurements of the plasma concentrations that were used to observe the turbulent pinch." Is there any use of such...