Promethius Fusion Makes The BBC

[MSimon]

Let me add for all you hopefuls: I have mined this site in the past for "help".

Okay now I'm mystified/amused ... what exactly does this mean?

Writing proposals. Staffing proposed Polywell projects.

[TallDave]

Uh oh, they found some tokkers for comment:

With a confirmed fusion reaction under his belt, Suppes is ready to be the first amateur to take on the Polywell. But even if he manages to build a working Polywell, professional fusion scientists are not at all convinced the design can produce more power than it takes in. “The scheme makes neutrons, and makes a nice science project. Using it to solve the world’s energy problems is a bit more complicated, as the power required to sustain these devices tends to be larger than the fusion power produced,” explained William Nevins, a fusion scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Nevins challenged Bussard’s claims about the Polywell in a paper published in Physics of Plasmas in 1995. He estimated you would need to put 100,000 watts of power into the reactor to get just 1 watt out. If that’s the case, the Polywell would make a horrible power plant.

So far, the most favorable energy balance any fusion machine has achieved is about 10:1, and physicists have been steadily improving the ratio over decades with better tokamak-based designs. “We’ve systematically gone up from a tenth of a watt to ten million watts of fusion power in our experiments,” explained Goldston. The devices he manages at Princeton are producing more power than they consume, but not yet enough to be used as power plants. Considering the amount of work he’s put into the problem over a span of decades, Goldston is skeptical of claims that a relatively untested, new design can do better than systems that have been steadily refined.

While Goldston sees nothing wrong with pursuing out-there ideas in fusion, he doesn’t believe that inertial electrostatic confinement — the Polywell’s design — is the way to go. “It’s been proven over and over again to be wrong,” he says.

I think this is maybe an example of why the funders don't want publicity. There's a definite political element to all this, and the other side's budget for flack is probably bigger than PWs is for actual research. The numbers are on their side in any war, we can only hope science is on ours.

It's a bit irking there are no IEC scientists cited in the article. I know they probably can't get Rick to comment, but maybe Krall or Ligon? I guess it's probably a lot easier to find a tokamak guy. Numbers, again.

[MSimon]

I'm amused:

“It’s been proven over and over again to be wrong,”

Never tried at sufficient scale - but proven wrong.

The guy must be scared.

====

I think Ligon was quoted at Gizmodo.

[GIThruster]

Heh.

All this response to me offering who is interested in doing M-E research?

Seems so.

Timing is everything.

But who knows? I'm wrong all the time. (but hey folks, there's more than a dozen posts like this in the last day. . .)

[bennmann]

Anyone from the IEC University of Wisconsin department viewing this thread?

Seems like there might be some qualified people there for a journalist to quote too. I would like an opinion that hasn't been close to Polywell (other than our dear Mr Suppes - who although an amateur, so far is very awesome and credible with his fusor).

[MSimon]

This article on Mark's work:

http://www.ehsmanager.blogspot.com/2010 ... or-in.html

Picked up a tagline I use in many of my fusion articles:

Polywell is a little more complicated. You can learn more about Polywell and its potential at: Bussard's IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion)Explained

[Robthebob]

just a quick question, can the WB effect take place without the ions?

I think on monday i shall go speak with my boss and some other professors, if we have some crappy vac pump no one wants, i know there are spare capacitors laying around. If all goes well, and there's actually a good reason for me to do this, i shall begin attempting to make a polywell fusor.

[icarus]

MSimon:

Writing proposals.

I was actually thinking you might state explicitly what material you have taken from TalkPolywell to be used in other documents? (e.g. proposals)

[icarus]

Famulus's exploits slashdotted.

http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/06/24 ... tor-In-NYC

I have a hunch its the Programmer-by-day angle is what tickles the journalists fancy. Still think it great he's having a go (just hope he doesn't electrocute himself before learning enough high voltage technique).

[MSimon]

MSimon:

Writing proposals.

I was actually thinking you might state explicitly what material you have taken from TalkPolywell to be used in other documents? (e.g. proposals)

Nothing specific. And most of it I found elsewhere on my own. But if you are interested in writing a proposal I have done about 4 or 5 so far. Contact me. My help is low cost (free) but I usually deal myself in as labor of some sort on the project.

BTW I have published bits and pieces of most of what I have done around here. Search around. And you can read what Famulus put together here:

http://prometheusfusionperfection.com/2 ... -investor/

But the real deal is getting the right people. Within reason it is hardly ever about the money. It is about getting people the VCs trust to overcome hurdles that always show up. My advantage is that I know most of the community (I've been at this since Nov 2006) and I have the trust of most of those interested in working on a project. Which is one of the reasons I never felt constrained in publishing what I have learned about costs etc.

So what does Famulus bring to the table? Drive. He, like Grant, is always moving forward, overcoming obstacles, finding a way. You can hear it in the way he talks. Like putting 10 more years of his life into the research. No matter what. It is not a hobby for him. Just as it is not a hobby for me.

[MSimon]

Famulus's exploits slashdotted.

http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/06/24 ... tor-In-NYC

I have a hunch its the Programmer-by-day angle is what tickles the journalists fancy. Still think it great he's having a go (just hope he doesn't electrocute himself before learning enough high voltage technique).

The Gucci angle is good too.