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High Beta Fusion Reactor

Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2014 10:06 pm
by cgray45
I know this was spoken of by Lockheed about two years ago-- has their been any further information on it? Also, is it an aneutronic reaction or not?

Re: High Beta Fusion Reactor

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 9:35 pm
by asdfuogh
I don't think I've seen or heard any new information about it.. But in their video, it was stated to be a cylindrical device, high beta, a "different" kind of magnetic topography, and designed by Tom McGuire. In addition, the speaker makes a point about the "adjacent possible" which is the term he used for putting already known devices/techniques/etc. in different combinations to achieve different things.

Personally, the high beta and cylindrical design make me think FRC, but if you look up Tom McGuire's thesis from MIT, he was doing research on inertial electrostatic confinement. Also, apparently tri-Alpha Energy and Helion Energy were presenting at the same conference and the Google dude in charge found Lockheed Martin the most impressive. Since TAE and HE are doing FRC stuff, we probably can rule out FRCs for LM.. maybe.

Here is the PDF of his thesis:
http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/ ... sequence=1

Re: High Beta Fusion Reactor

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:48 am
by hanelyp
I've presented some speculation at viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5314 of a polywell related device using a FRC based magnetic field.

As for anything from the skunkworks team, there appears to be nothing since the initial video.

Re: High Beta Fusion Reactor

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:47 am
by asdfuogh
They did have a pretty boastful claim of .. what, 5 years for a proof-of-concept device and 10 years for a commercial product? So, 3 / 7 years to wait and see, eh?

Re: High Beta Fusion Reactor

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 5:53 pm
by paperburn1
there is this on the MIT side and they are somehow aligned with the LM team
http://ssl.mit.edu/research/Fusion.html

Re: High Beta Fusion Reactor

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:53 pm
by asdfuogh
Yes, Tom McGuire, purported designer of the LM device, did his PhD in the MIT aerospace engineering department.. Did you read that pdf? I can only assume that if there is continuing research on this, LM must fund them partially alongside some NDA.

Re: High Beta Fusion Reactor

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 4:02 am
by mattman
Tom's Grad school friend: Dr Carl Dietrich, told me he did not think any effort could beat Rider's work. He's exact quote was: "Tom thinks he's on to something." Carl is the co-founder of Terrafugia.

For new folks, you can read about Rider's 1995 paper: here (and on Wikipedia).

Re: High Beta Fusion Reactor

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 3:27 pm
by ladajo
I think it is fair to say they all 'think they are on to something'. At least unitl they figure out it doesn't work like they thought it might. ;)

A key point here is that high end plasma physics is a relatively small and incestuous community. All lot of the community knows each other and do talk.