Talk-Polywell.org

A few comments and questions regarding recent discussions in this thread: ... Fourth, in the latest modifications to the current contract, the estimated completion date is the end of this month. Does anybody have any educated guesses as to what, if anything, we're likely to see after that? Maybe it...

Unfortunately Polywell seems to be kinda stuck in the financial catch 22: Most of the basic science is already done.... Have the experimental results testing Bussard's model been published in peer-reviewed journals that appear in science citation index? If so, did those experimental results match t...

Northstar wrote: So they're needing a megawatt of input power on the electron guns alone, not mentioning the ion guns.

Does THAT number tell anyone anything about how well things are working?

No. What is the duration of that power?

Due diligence is to be expected and the diligence due on something like fusion is going to be great. Just look at what we have seen here so far (two or three data points) 1 in 2. 1 in 1,000. 1 in 10^10. Those numbers are not even in the same ball park. That's where the value of private capital in r...

If the odds are 1 in 1,000 then it is worth a $1 million effort. I think you need a 10X bigger prize. Do you put the odds of Polywell at 1 in 1,000? More like 5 out of 10. But if I was an outsider that is about where I think some one who hadn't studied the matter for a few years might put it. Due d...

Care to get bonded on such a scheme? Unnecessary since the investment is in escrow until success is demonstrated. Its called a prize fund. Read the legislation. If the odds are 1 in 1,000 then it is worth a $1 million effort. I think you need a 10X bigger prize. Do you put the odds of Polywell at 1...

Art, where would you put a $1billion investment with guaranteed success in producing a working prototype p-B11 fusion system in your ROI list? Care to get bonded on such a scheme? Unnecessary since the investment is in escrow until success is demonstrated. Its called a prize fund. Read the legislat...

If we are going to waste money on fusion ... Let's not. The name of the game is (clean and economical) power. Both tokamaks and polywells are far from the top of my list of expected ROI. Put the funding in efficiency, solar thermal, wind, geothermal, biomass, ... . Art, where, on your ROI rank orde...

First of all, I just noticed that the web archive of my scanned in copy of Bussard's letter has been partially deleted -- specifically the legislative language itself. There is, however, another copy of Bussard's letter online in PDF form . Now, why would Bussard basically blow off his entire career...

And then invest more political capital in a particular technology? That is the point of the legislation. Since the legislation is independent of which fusion technology is going to work, it is a better expenditure of political capital than going down the list and trying to pick winners. Picking win...

PS: The best homage to Bussard this group could do is focus any political energy expended toward passing that legislation. It would ensure the most rapid development of Polywell Boron-11 energy -- if passed that is. The political capital required has already been spent and the goods are on order. I...

Cheers to Kiteman for the ominus daily countdown. Oh. I thought that was a reference to the preceeding comment - how many years waiting. I thought the year-waiting count was around the 30 mark now, anyway. Thats for tokamak. :roll: Actually, if you read Bussard's letter to Congress , you'll notice ...

It is my understanding that certain nuclear processes are not patentable under US law. This stems from the early days of the national laboratories and national security concerns. Does anyone have details on/confirmation of this?

The mere fact that Rick Nebel, has said that the WB-7 results are inconsistent with this bound, should be reason enough to abandon using it in your calculations. In the absence of published, peer-reviewed and reproducible results, its not unreasonable to speculate about Nebel's interpretation -- th...

Two polywell prize suggestions:

1) For the simplest physical model that fits the measured data.

2) For the simplest closed form physical model that fits the measured data.

As the Netflix Prize has shown, it isn't necessary to release all the data.