Tokamak reactors could be practical with this one weird trick
Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:41 pm
A tokamak reactor can only constrain plasma in 2 dimensions. Round and round the plasma goes. Every time a particle smashes into another the plasma expands. Keeping the over all magnetic fields around the plasma at a superlative strength allows for the plasma to move slowly toward the edges. But sooner or later that plasma impacts on the reactor walls causing it to cool down and halt. If only there were some way to introduce a third dimension to the confinement. Then the plasma could be confined indefinitely. We have the electrostatic force to consider. What if we introduced a probe to the system that had a high positive electric field. the ions would be repelled by it. Round and round the plasma goes and when it encounters the probe ions are repelled by it shoving it into the center. The only bad side is that it greatly attracts electrons which for all we care are a waste of the system. But there is no reason we can't harness these wayward electrons in decelerators or semiconductor strikes that shower electrons generating high electric currents. We can absorb these attracted electrons and recycle their charges. We need electrons in a fusion plasma. No plasma is ever going to have a practical density unless we consider this necessary evil of the negative charge. Even a small and thin plasma exerts a tremendous force should it be be only of one electrically charged species.
The polywell's hope is non thermalized plasma. But the supports, cusps, whatever you want to call it is the death nell for it now matter how clever it's arrangement can be. This is the fate of all such similar designs. There were people here, my self included that judged within seconds of reading about Lockheed's plans for their reactor, knew for sure it would never work. And it never did! Never underestimate the power of informed thinking.
We could take what works, the tokamak 2d confiner and add a third dimension of confinement to it. Accept the inefficiencies of recycling electrons. You could take those plate attracted electrons and feed them back to the machine using an electron gun. That injected stream of electrons can be injected at the very center of the tokamak plasma where it causes fewer problems than if the whole plasma were mixed with equal species of charges. You end up with a stratified electronic plasma with positive power producing ions separate from the negative obstacles. The negative beam at the very center of the hybrid tokamak keeps the plasma stable. Without it, you are dealing with forces that are scarcely comprehensible.
The goal of the hybrid electrostatic / magnetic tokamak is to recycle the useless energy losses of the negative component of the bulk neutral plasma. The charges are physically separated. The electrons eventually leak their way to collectors which are shot back into the machine with findingly acceptable losses. The result is a positive plasma attracted to the center, and repelled by the edges. This is the only way a fusion reactor can ever be safe and practical. The required magnetic field strength will always be high but with the recirculator in action these fields do not need to be anything like that which is currently in proposal for fusion power applications. Push those ions in, suck those electrons out and shove them back in. Get me a 98% efficient way of doing this and I will make you a fusion reactor that is practical.
The polywell's hope is non thermalized plasma. But the supports, cusps, whatever you want to call it is the death nell for it now matter how clever it's arrangement can be. This is the fate of all such similar designs. There were people here, my self included that judged within seconds of reading about Lockheed's plans for their reactor, knew for sure it would never work. And it never did! Never underestimate the power of informed thinking.
We could take what works, the tokamak 2d confiner and add a third dimension of confinement to it. Accept the inefficiencies of recycling electrons. You could take those plate attracted electrons and feed them back to the machine using an electron gun. That injected stream of electrons can be injected at the very center of the tokamak plasma where it causes fewer problems than if the whole plasma were mixed with equal species of charges. You end up with a stratified electronic plasma with positive power producing ions separate from the negative obstacles. The negative beam at the very center of the hybrid tokamak keeps the plasma stable. Without it, you are dealing with forces that are scarcely comprehensible.
The goal of the hybrid electrostatic / magnetic tokamak is to recycle the useless energy losses of the negative component of the bulk neutral plasma. The charges are physically separated. The electrons eventually leak their way to collectors which are shot back into the machine with findingly acceptable losses. The result is a positive plasma attracted to the center, and repelled by the edges. This is the only way a fusion reactor can ever be safe and practical. The required magnetic field strength will always be high but with the recirculator in action these fields do not need to be anything like that which is currently in proposal for fusion power applications. Push those ions in, suck those electrons out and shove them back in. Get me a 98% efficient way of doing this and I will make you a fusion reactor that is practical.