Peter Dunn has written the article Knowledge, Capital, and a Growing Sense of Mission: Fusion Energy Development Enters a New Era, which is a nice overview of what is going on with the fusion companies. There is small errors in the fusion time line and the General Fusion drawing is outdated, but the article is worth reading.
https://medium.com/theengine/knowledge- ... 51c551cef5
Article: Knowledge, Capital, and a Growing Sense of Mission: Fusion Energy Development Enters a New Era
Re: Article: Knowledge, Capital, and a Growing Sense of Mission: Fusion Energy Development Enters a New Era
Sadly, two mentioned are slow motion flaming trainwrecks seeking a mountain to run into.
And Polywell was not mentioned at all (or contacted as far as I know).
And Polywell was not mentioned at all (or contacted as far as I know).
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
Re: Article: Knowledge, Capital, and a Growing Sense of Mission: Fusion Energy Development Enters a New Era
There is a mention of Polywell in the article (albeit, it is the first picture) following the paragraph that starts "UK-based Tokamak Energy has stated a goal".
The picture history was the best thing of the whole article.
Regards
Polygirl
The picture history was the best thing of the whole article.
Regards
Polygirl
The more I know, the less I know.
Re: Article: Knowledge, Capital, and a Growing Sense of Mission: Fusion Energy Development Enters a New Era
It seems that until Polywell finishes with their simulations there is no larger support. All the other projects have sizable $ support. Even LPP has hardware $.
It has been so long since I have heard of where EMC2 is on getting the simulation results needed, I have forgotten. 2019? 2020? 2021? I don't even think about them now and neither did the writer. Fusion will happen with or without Polywell.
I still think that the size of Polywell will in the end make it a winner... if they can ever get the money...iff, a huge if.
It has been so long since I have heard of where EMC2 is on getting the simulation results needed, I have forgotten. 2019? 2020? 2021? I don't even think about them now and neither did the writer. Fusion will happen with or without Polywell.
I still think that the size of Polywell will in the end make it a winner... if they can ever get the money...iff, a huge if.
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.
Re: Article: Knowledge, Capital, and a Growing Sense of Mission: Fusion Energy Development Enters a New Era
The article mentions that there is an investment company solely devoted to fusion, which is quite interesting. The idea of having investment companies like that was discussed last year at the ARPA-E ALPHA annual review meeting, so possibly there will be more similar efforts in the near future.
https://arpa-e.energy.gov/sites/default ... ERSOLL.pdf
I agree that the popular articles about the fusion companies rarely give a balanced overview of the different efforts. The number of groups developing alternative fusion is more than twenty http://generalfusion.com/wp-content/upl ... Fusion.pdf. No short article can cover all of those at once. It is true that a few minutes with Google and browsing Wikipedia would easily reveal the players in the field and their achievements, but apparently quite often this background groundwork is done superficially or not at all. It should also be remembered that EMC2 has chosen for the time being to stay low in terms of publicity, so that probably also has an effect.
Hopefully the funding for EMC2 will improve if they get their two patent applications approved. Since their old patents have expired they don't
have currently valid patents. If you look at the other companies who have gotten funding lately, they all have patents granted to them.
https://arpa-e.energy.gov/sites/default ... ERSOLL.pdf
I agree that the popular articles about the fusion companies rarely give a balanced overview of the different efforts. The number of groups developing alternative fusion is more than twenty http://generalfusion.com/wp-content/upl ... Fusion.pdf. No short article can cover all of those at once. It is true that a few minutes with Google and browsing Wikipedia would easily reveal the players in the field and their achievements, but apparently quite often this background groundwork is done superficially or not at all. It should also be remembered that EMC2 has chosen for the time being to stay low in terms of publicity, so that probably also has an effect.
Hopefully the funding for EMC2 will improve if they get their two patent applications approved. Since their old patents have expired they don't
have currently valid patents. If you look at the other companies who have gotten funding lately, they all have patents granted to them.