Two weeks ago, Congress slashed $400 million in proposed increases for the 2008 budget of DOE's Office of Science, the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States (ScienceNOW, 18 December 2007). The cuts wreaked havoc on DOE's programs in fusion and particle physics and took a big bite out of its efforts in "basic energy sciences" such as chemistry and materials sciences. Funding was zeroed for the U.S. contribution this year to the multibillion-dollar International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) (ScienceNOW, 21 December 2007), and U.S. participation in the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC) particle physics experiment was also effectively stopped, jeopardizing the project's existence. The rollbacks are also forcing hundreds of layoffs at two of the Office of Science's national labs (Science, 11 January 2008, p. 142) and have led to deep cuts in running time at x-ray sources and other user facilities at the other eight.
My theory is that the money will go to Polywell if the experiments green light further effort. Of course I'm extrapolating based on nothing. Time will tell.
Update: I'm wondering if this isn't in some way Congress's payback for all the friction put in Dr. B's path by DOE. Maybe the DOE will get the message. If there is one.
Raymond Orbach kept repeating that it was the "will of Congress and the people". It will be interesting for some one to do the history of all this in a few years - after the dust settles.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Who knows but this funding thing is very interesting to keep an eye on.
If the money to significantly advance the polywell doesnt come through thriftly at least it will prove to me the existence of a high end conspiracy in the United States.
The money could be slowly throttled. Powerful vested interests still have plenty of oil left to sell. Shit they even went to war for it.
Masses of talented experienced physicists looking for work. Looks like it just got harder to get a job.......
The cat is out of the bag. You said it Simon.
The only thing that can slow those 3.76Mev Helium alphas down now is Bureaucracy.
You would be shocked at how much ignorance is out there. I spoke with a top research manager at a well-known Wall Street firm last week and he had never heard of IEC prior to our conversation. His eyes lit up when I mentioned the Rostoker/Monkton group at Tri-Alpha Energy getting $40M from Gates and Allen. It's my opinion that private capital may be more forthcoming once some progress is shown.
The big deal will be Q > 1. Hell, getting to Q=1 would be impressive.
scareduck wrote:You would be shocked at how much ignorance is out there. I spoke with a top research manager at a well-known Wall Street firm last week and he had never heard of IEC prior to our conversation. His eyes lit up when I mentioned the Rostoker/Monkton group at Tri-Alpha Energy getting $40M from Gates and Allen. It's my opinion that private capital may be more forthcoming once some progress is shown.
The big deal will be Q > 1. Hell, getting to Q=1 would be impressive.
All Rostoker has at this time is a paper machine. He doesn't have experiment 1.
As I recall the early money is going towards simulations.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
I have doubts the polywell is on congresses radar yet. But if we get positive results out of WB7 I wouldn't be surprised to see them stepping on each other to claim early support.
hanelyp wrote:I have doubts the polywell is on congresses radar yet. But if we get positive results out of WB7 I wouldn't be surprised to see them stepping on each other to claim early support.
I heard from one of my private sources that it was on their radar last Sept or Oct.
Once funding is approved I'll tell the whole story.
BTW I called my Congress Critter today and gave him a heads up on the MSNBC story and asked for a mail reply.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
hanelyp wrote:I have doubts the polywell is on congresses radar yet. But if we get positive results out of WB7 I wouldn't be surprised to see them stepping on each other to claim early support.
I heard from one of my private sources that it was on their radar last Sept or Oct.
Once funding is approved I'll tell the whole story.
I am curious what this post meant? Which funding are you talking about? What's the story?
hanelyp wrote:I have doubts the polywell is on congresses radar yet. But if we get positive results out of WB7 I wouldn't be surprised to see them stepping on each other to claim early support.
I heard from one of my private sources that it was on their radar last Sept or Oct.
Once funding is approved I'll tell the whole story.
I am curious what this post meant? Which funding are you talking about? What's the story?
Let me just say that I have indications from (last Sept-Oct) that Congress was interested in WB-7.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.