Talk-Polywell.org

To all: I understand that people are interested in our results, particularly on this website. I‘ll keep you informed. This is typical of DOD contracts, and the rationale behind it is pretty simple. They don’t want contractors making public statements that aren’t correct, or haven’t been looked at. T...

I suppose that this is the point where I need to make a comment. As for the WB-7, the plasma is pretty much there (i.e. where it needs to be). The plasma diagnostics aren’t. They have been built and their components have been tested. They need to be installed and tested on the machine. Obviously, we...

The 2.5e22 density is what is required to achieve Beta = 1 on a big machine. One can infer a number of things from the WB-6 data, but there were no direct density measurements.

JMC Pellet injection technology was largely developed at ORNL in the late 70s and early 80s. We've thought about this, but I suspect that the cost is a little pricey for our budget. There are a couple of other problems with this. One problem is that if assymetric high energy electrons impinge on a p...

JMC and MSimon: Actually, you need to click on “read more” under the design section, then “main parameters” then on the “more” button. What you will find is that the average density of ITER is ~ 1.0e20/m**3. If you use the formula I sent you for the Polywell, you will get a density ~ 2.5e22/m**3. Th...

to JMC: Since you are worried about Rider, let me suggest the following exercise. Let's assume that a Polywell reactor is in the wiffleball mode, namely that: n*kBolt*Te = B**2/(2*mu0) to make it simple, let's use mks units and assume B = 10 Tesla, mu0 =4.0e-7*pi, Te = 1.0e4 eV and kBolt = 1.6022e-1...

M. Simon:

I guess it doesn't surprise me that the water resistors have been around for a long time. It's kind of an obvious thing to do.

Generally the only instabilities that show up on these timescales are resistive MHD. This can be tearing modes (reconnecting MHD modes) or resistive interchange (so-called g modes) or possibly resistive ballooning modes. The latter two won't occur on Polywell's due to the good curvature. Tearing req...

to Tom et. al. Working at EMC2 isn't quite as scary as it used to be. At least that's what Mike Wray thinks. When we first started looking at the WB-6 data, we concluded that part of the problem was that there was too much energy available. There also wasn't any way to shut off the current or discha...

dnavas: Polywells have good curvature in their magnetic fields everywhere. Tokamaks have average good curvature. Consequently, tokamaks have some regions where localized modes (like elms) can be a problem. It's unlikely that we will see elms on a Polywell. However, we might see other things. However...

This is just a general answer about pulsed vs. steady-state devices: Both the WB-6 and the WB-7 are inherently pulsed machines. Neither is actively cooled. Take a look at the numbers. These machines are injecting 1- 10 Mw of power. That would get a little pricey for a true steady-state machine. But ...

John P This may sound a little strange, but we figured this out from the WB-7 by looking at the residual gas analyzer (rga). After we did several test shots on the W-7 coils we noticed that the water content in the vacuum chamber went up and stayed up. Stainless steel outgasses water when you heat i...

John P I don't know if you are interested in this, but we think we know what happened to the WB-6 and why. When you fire the coils on a polywell, they heat. The coils are located inside the vacuum chamber. It keeps the heat from escaping the coils just like a thermos bottle insulates your coffee. If...

Thanks Tom. We appreciated those, particularly since we got autographed copies! If you have a few more available, we could use them. We are sending one to Bob Hirsch.

to Average Joe: The people in the fusion program really aren't evil people. You just need to understand the situation that they're in. Most of them have worked their entire careers on Tokamaks. In the 2008 budget, ITER got cut to zero. Right now they are very vulnerable. If this funding isn't, at le...