Fusion litelature and website suggestions

Discuss how polywell fusion works; share theoretical questions and answers.

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Zixinus
Posts: 200
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:39 pm

Fusion litelature and website suggestions

Post by Zixinus »

I hereby want to dedicate this topic to good resources regarding fusion, whether it be general fusion, papers or even nothing directly related to fusion but regarding physics.

My only rule really, is to have to favour free resources, if not, say so. This includes websites, if you have to pay.

Tom Dolan's textbook on fusion:
http://www.fusionnow.org/dolan.html
Free, textbook. Notes: 1982, you have to download chapter individually.

Fusors
www.fusor.net
Free, website with forums.

Fusion Education Site
http://fusedweb.pppl.gov/
Free, website with FQA and lexicon/encyclopaedia.

Periodic table of isotopes
http://ie.lbl.gov/education/info.htm
Free, website regarding isotopes.

Hyper-physics
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html
Free, general physics website with equations.

Any other suggestions?

pstudier
Posts: 79
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:37 pm

Post by pstudier »

Two more:

MIT Courseware. Search for plasma or fusion under physics and nuclear science. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index.htm

Wikipedia: Start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power and note the template at the bottom of the page.
Fusion is easy, but break even is horrendous.

Zixinus
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Post by Zixinus »

I do not consider Wikipedia a good source.

pstudier
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Post by pstudier »

Zixinus wrote:I do not consider Wikipedia a good source.
Well, it is certainly wise to be skeptical. On the other hand on anything controversial, the talk page will present both sides. Quite often the references cited are much more valuable than a google search. Finally, what we discover here should be added to wikipedia. It is easier to look things up there than it is to pick though discussions on a bulletin board.
Fusion is easy, but break even is horrendous.

davea0511
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Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:17 pm

Post by davea0511 »

Zixinus wrote:I do not consider Wikipedia a good source.
It is what you make of it. If you choose to not make it a good source then it won't be. Along with the Wikipedia comes ownership. A lot of Universities are starting to do just that. It has matured dramatically in the last couple years and will continue to do so. Sure people will make changes who should have no right to, but in many cases they are quickly corrected. I think you can expect that to happen more - especially as there are those who are willing to make it better instead of lamenting how bad they think it is.

Zixinus
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Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:39 pm

Post by Zixinus »

It is what you make of it. If you choose to not make it a good source then it won't be. Along with the Wikipedia comes ownership. A lot of Universities are starting to do just that. It has matured dramatically in the last couple years and will continue to do so. Sure people will make changes who should have no right to, but in many cases they are quickly corrected. I think you can expect that to happen more - especially as there are those who are willing to make it better instead of lamenting how bad they think it is.
Wikipedia is an open-source project at an encyclopaedia by everyone, and most people are not that knowledgeable as they think they are. There are some fundamental flaws regarding Wikipedia, as well as various mayor issues with both the administration and community.

It is good as a start-off source, but it is not when it comes specifics. It does not mention anything that I don't already know from other fusion sources that I already linked. It is also often unreliable, especially at topics that are controversial.

And to get a taste of what problems are there with Wikipedia:
http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=Main_Page

Citizendium arguments:
http://www.citizendium.org/roomforexperts.html

tonybarry
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Location: Sydney, Australia
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Post by tonybarry »

I have been chewing through two documents:-
John Santarius (Uni of Wisconsin, 2002)
"A brief overview of inertial-electrostatic confinement fusion"

R. W. Bussard (EMC2, 2006)
"The advent of clean nuclear fusion"

I am unable to obtain papers these articles cite as references, esp. the paper by N. Krall (Fusion Technology 1992) "The Polywell: a sperically convergent ion focus concept" ... I am unable to find the journal Fusion Technology listed in my university's library subscriptions (Sydney Uni).

Any thoughts people?

Regards,
Tony Barry

JoeStrout
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Post by JoeStrout »

tonybarry wrote:I have been chewing through two documents:-
John Santarius (Uni of Wisconsin, 2002)
"A brief overview of inertial-electrostatic confinement fusion"

R. W. Bussard (EMC2, 2006)
"The advent of clean nuclear fusion"
I don't know that second one. Where is it available?
tonybarry wrote:I am unable to obtain papers these articles cite as references, esp. the paper by N. Krall (Fusion Technology 1992) "The Polywell: a sperically convergent ion focus concept" ... I am unable to find the journal Fusion Technology listed in my university's library subscriptions (Sydney Uni).
I have that one. But the journal Fusion Technology changed names at some point in its history; it may be filed under a different name... you might ask the librarian for help locating it (unfortunately, I no longer remember what the other name was and when it switched).

As for this particular paper, contact me privately with your e-mail address and I'll see if I can help.
Joe Strout
Talk-Polywell.org site administrator

tonybarry
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Post by tonybarry »

Hello All,
The following link provides the "official" reason for the name change of "Fusion Technology" journal to "Fusion and Accelerator Technology".

http://fed.ans.org/Min/1199.pdf

I hope to see if my university has this journal on its list on Monday.
Regards,
Tony Barry
PS note that the American Nuclear Society has a similar journal, "Fusion Science and Technology" which has *no* mention of polywell or N.A.Krall, and only one (passing) mention of Robert Bussard. I suspect that FaAT has gone, and FSaT is its successor, with no antecedent articles copied over. Oh well.

MSimon
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Post by MSimon »

I have a bunch of useful links on the sidebar:

http://iecfusiontech.blogspot.com/

From Physics to how to code for Greek characters like Σ and math symbols like √ in HTML.
Last edited by MSimon on Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

lambda0
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Post by lambda0 »


drmike
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Post by drmike »

Thanks lambda0! I'm gonna be busy reading this week for sure....

tonybarry
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Location: Sydney, Australia
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Post by tonybarry »

I echo drmike's thanks!

Regards,
Tony Barry

windmill
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Fusion Technology Journal

Post by windmill »

I just joined the group and noticed there is some confusion regarding the Bussard and Krall papers.

Fusion Technology was the title of the journal that became Fusion Science and Technology, published by the American Nuclear Society. They printed three articles in the early nineties about the Polywell concept by Bussard and Krall. I can direct you to these if you email me.

Zixinus
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Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:39 pm

Post by Zixinus »

I have difficulties with the math. If I learned one thing about it, is that every mathematician uses a different symbol for various mathematical work. Can anybody supply me with a good, coherent site regarding math? I'm not used to how English deals with math.

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