Talk-Polywell.org

mvanwink5 wrote:Comparing funding for these fusion projects to the "Nigerian Prince" scam is pure hyperbole, and coming from a Gubbermant funded scientist, I wonder if it might be just self-serving? Gubbermant always seems to get the best bureaucrats money can buy.

Yes, I agree that this was a gross exaggeration. It is amazing how much alternative fusion concepts must struggle with recognition and credibility. Even the spherical tokamak proponents at Tokamak Energy have the same problem:

One blockage to be removed is that of skepticism about new ideas and resistance to disruptive innovation of the type we are proposing. We are just now at the point of having sufficient published evidence to rebut the skepticism, but it can take a long time to overcome institutional resistance to disruptive innovation.

http://www.tokamakenergy.co.uk/about-us/

Wow, that Princeton Professor sure hit under the belt there. The "traditional" Tokamaks are most accepted approach, but they are also the most expensive approach and they are based on concepts developed decades ago. Today, we have much better simulation and other technologies that were not available back then.

Helion Energy Financing

Helion Energy, Inc., Corporation just filed form D for $21.23 million equity financing. This is a new filing. Helion Energy was able to sell $10.61 million so far. That is 50.00% of the round of financing. The total offering amount was $21.23 million. The fundraising form was filed on 2015-07-06. The reason for the financing was: unspecified. The fundraising still has about $10.61 million more and is not closed yet. We have to wait more to see if the offering will be fully taken.

http://www.octafinance.com/helion-energ ... -6-form-d/
http://form-d.findthecompany.com/l/1991 ... Energy-Inc
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/ ... -index.htm

Very cool! Looks like they have completed all preliminary tests satisfyingly enough to move on to the next larger reactor

NBF has new article up.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/08/helion ... n-and.html

This is so exciting! I think they are doing great! I just hope that the funding is actually coming together. So far they have achieved a lot with very little budget but at some point you have to just move on because you reach the limits of what you can do at a small scale.

It was not so long ago that Helion seemed to be the company that wasn't getting any funding. Now it seems like they have all the right connections, even more so than EMC2. Not that I begrudge them their funding. It's nice to see some DOE money going to potential competitors to the mainline tokamak program. Here's hoping for success from Helion or someone else in 2017 or thereabouts.

Oddly enough, Helion Energy apparently posted a news article on their website the same day as the NBF article appeared, yet there was no mention of it in the NBF article, except perhaps this oblique reference:

* The Fusion Engine was designed from the ground up to be a competitive commercial device, yet is based on demonstrated physics, technologies and Helion’s patented scientific breakthrough.

The news:

Helion Energy is pleased to announce the publication of US Patent 9,082,516, “Apparatus, systems and methods for fusion based power generation and engine thrust generation”.

I haven't given it a thorough looking-over, but at first glance it appears to be identical to the Fusion Driven Rocket concept studied under the NASA NIAC program. John Slough is the inventor, and the assignee is MSNW LLC. Helion Energy claims exclusive license to the patent.

Helion is MSNW

ladajo wrote:Helion is MSNW

Not exactly but close.

Close enough that you can say it as a "more or less".
Still has overlap with Slough and Kirtley. While Pihl and Votroubek were affiliated.

Helion Energy has a new patent ADVANCED FUEL CYCLE AND FUSION REACTORS UTILIZING THE SAME in which they describe how they plan to suppress tritium production and create helion ions for their reactor. Since they will run in a pulsed mode they will have the possibility to do fusion ash separation between each pulse. They are also thinking of breeding tritium with a lithium blanket and then allowing the tritium to decay to increase the helion production.

This patent has maybe been one reason why Helion Energy has been rather quiet on the details of their work lately compared to their competitors? The document is 22 pages long and quite easy to read. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/WO2015163970A2.pdf

Suppress tritium production in the fusion plasma but breed it in a blanket?

D+D => T+p , followed by likelihood of T+D reaction releasing a neutron
D+D => He3+n
Looks like unless you suppress all D+D reactions you're going to get fusion neutrons.

hanelyp wrote:Suppress tritium production in the fusion plasma but breed it in a blanket?

D+D => T+p , followed by likelihood of T+D reaction releasing a neutron
D+D => He3+n
Looks like unless you suppress all D+D reactions you're going to get fusion neutrons.

Misunderstanding of the patent by both you and crowberry, Helion would not suppress the production of the Tritium, they would suppress the fusion of Tritium with Deuterium.
Also, if you read the patent, you will see why the neutrons produced by one branch of the D+D reaction are less of a problem than neutrons produced by D+T side reactions would be.

Yes, you are right. I wrote suppress tritium production, when I meant suppress tritium fusion, sorry for that.