Talk-Polywell.org

Here's another question with regard to the scaling, is the distance from the Magrid to the Earthed cage dependent only on the voltage and not on reactor dimensions? In the pictures, for example, the earthed cage surrounding the magrid appears to have twice the diameter of the magrid, if the volume ...

Maybe having a Polywell + POPS system would allow smaller machines producing net power. I am not sure. MSimon is more aware of the advantages of POPS technology. Maybe he may answer this. Which are the final advantages of a POPS system? The guys working on POPS reference Bussard's work, so MSimon b...

In many ways the polywell is a functional variation of your idea. Instead of using negatively charged plates it uses the positive charge on the magrid to attract the electrons. The magnetic field only works to get a higher density in the centre versus the outside and to prevent the electrons crashin...

bcglorf, Do you have any link to the new Yoshikawa paper?At lest to read the abstract It's published in volume 261 of Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B. The article is titled "Research and development of a compact discharge-driven D–D fusion neutron source for explosive ...

http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/aesj/division/fusion/aesjfnt/Yoshikawa.pdf The above has actual experimental results. I found the same groups simulation work from 1997 that the above paper is a follow up to even more interesting. This from the summary: The results strongly suggest that the high neutron pro...

So finally, Has their been analysis for just how many alpha by-products we need to generate enough power to break even? If whats been said is true, it should easily calculate just how much we need to reach this. The scaling and the engineering are gonna have a significant impact on what the exact n...

When using the p-B11 reaction, most of the fusion products are high-velocity charged particles. You can extract their energy in fairly simple fashion using charged plates; the plates slow the ions down, generating a DC current in the process. Bussard has said that to the outside world, the fusion r...

From what I've read, superconducters were suggested to reduce the overall power usage of the magnets. Copper magnets can generate strong enough magnetic fields, but superconducting magnets, at a certain size, should use less power to produce the same field. Thus, it's about getting better efficiency...

Zixinus wrote:So the fusion products are stopped. How do we further get rid of them altogether, so they won't bother the potential well and cause impurities in the fusion fuel?

The slowed down products are then pulled out by the vacuum pumps. Bussard goes over it in passing in the Google talk.

The video at the first link is totally unrealistic. It shows electrons leaving the cube in the center of the coils going parallel to the field, and then coming back even after they leave the area of maximum magnetic field. Such an electron will go straight off into infinity, just like in a mirror m...

Plasmas are complicated beasts, and in a magnetic field they get grumpy. I can see how the math will be messy. But to categoricly say "it won't work" is sticking your neck out pretty far. Seems like Bussard must have measured some thing useful for the past 11 years. For Bremsstrahlung losses, relat...

Start simple. Just do a few electrons one at a time. That is, ignore collisions. Then average their density to calculate an electric field. One needs to know whether there is a loss cone like a mirror machine. Sounds like how I was planning going at it. I was going to introduce electrons one at a t...

This sounds like a fun project. To make sure you get the basics, you might start with 100 electrons with a Maxwellian temperature distribution - one at each energy. Assume elastic collisions only and no walls. You can add fixed potentials at specific radius and see if particles with enough energy c...

Thanks guys. It helps to know even a rough order, 1E12 and up particles is gonna put run time in months even for a few steps. I know there are engineering limits that make going much smaller than WB6's 15cm diameter infeasible. If simulating just the electrons with the B field and the electric field...

My background is comp sci rather than physics, so I've been wanting to write my own simulation of just the 'simple' E+M level stuff for potential well formation. Along the lines of Indrek's work. In that vein, I was wondering how one would go about calculating the electron count from the well potent...