Richard Nebel's Tibbar Plasma Technologies

[Skipjack]

Looks like Richard Nebel is working on a new fusion reactor design. Looks interesting. I wish him the best of luck!
https://www.tibbartech.com/nsf-grant/

[quixote]

Thanks for the link, Skipjack.

Do you happen to know what became of their plasma-based transformer idea? I haven't seen anything about it, but I found the idea pretty interesting.

[Skipjack]

They have a section on their website devoted to it. Seems like they got a 3.5 million ARPA-E contract:
https://www.tibbartech.com/transformers/

[hanelyp]

To my eye it all reads like someone takes startrek too seriously.

[Nanos]

Someone had this to say about his DC to DC work:

---
Interestingly similar to the (old) CEGB''s magnetohydrodynamic generation
project on which I worked in the '60s. That failed because of the
difficulty in getting long-lived enough electrodes to extract anything
like a useful electrical current from the plasma (a flame, in their case.)

The patent cited is, I suspect (can't find the full article) based on a
small scale experiment using one of the rare gases as the plasma, and may
be difficult to scale up - like ours!
---

Related link:


DC to DC electrical transformer, Patent details:
https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch ... f/10334713

[Enginerd]

Tibbar Plasma Technologies Headquartered In Los Alamos Files Patent For New Type Of Fusion Device
https://ladailypost.com/tibbar-plasma-t ... on-device/

"Tibbar Plasma Technologies, Inc., (TPTI) headquartered in Los Alamos has filed a patent for a new type of fusion device. TPTI President/CEO Dr. Rick Nebel explained that this is a radical departure from conventional fusion devices in that it uses cold plasmas for fusion rather than hot plasmas. Confinement is also not size dependent, so the size can be small and the physics can be proven at small scale. Experimental results are consistent with the theoretical predictions, he said, adding that a journal article on the device is almost complete and will be submitted for publication shortly. A second publication showing the experimental results is in preparation."

“In the 47 years that I have worked on fusion, including 30 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), this is the most promising fusion concept that I have seen,” Dr. Nebel said. “Not only does it use cold plasmas, the theory predicts that it should work with aneutronic fuels (i.e. it doesn’t produce neutrons or radiation) which makes it suitable for space propulsion as well as terrestrial power production.”

If post polywell/EMC2 Nebel says so, his background has me paying attention.

[Giorgio]

Tibbar Plasma Technologies Headquartered In Los Alamos Files Patent For New Type Of Fusion Device
https://ladailypost.com/tibbar-plasma-t ... on-device/
If post polywell/EMC2 Nebel says so, his background has me paying attention.

Thank you for the link, here is another one with more explanations and pictures of the actual prototype and of the intended fusion process.
https://www.tibbartech.com/news/
Click on "Read more" to open the full article.

Regarding the idea, I am not really sure what to think. It looks like they are borrowing a lot of ideas from Helion design, but until I will be able to read their scientific paper with more detail I will refrain from developing any personal opinion.

.

[Skipjack]

Interesting! Would be cool if it works! Fingers crossed that it turns out the way they predict.