ZAP Energy News

Point out news stories, on the net or in mainstream media, related to polywell fusion.

Moderators: tonybarry, MSimon

mvanwink5
Posts: 2143
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:07 am
Location: N.C. Mountains

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by mvanwink5 »

Very nice, Thx!
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.

Munchausen
Posts: 226
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:36 pm
Location: Nikaloukta

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by Munchausen »

Phys.org had this article on independent confirmation of the neutron yield today:

https://phys.org/news/2022-03-scientist ... pinch.html

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by Skipjack »

Very nice but not surprising. The tests performed by Uri and his team were already pretty conclusive.

crowberry
Posts: 672
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 6:34 am

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by crowberry »

Ben Levitt who is director of R&D at Zap Energy gave a talk with the title Fusion Energy & the Energy Transition at the GDS Energy Summit in December 2021. It is a nice summary worth watching, but for Talk -Polywell members there is not much new as the presentation is a rather general one. The 24 min 39 s video of the presentation is available through this link:
https://gdsglobalmedia.s3.amazonaws.com ... eynote.mp4

crowberry
Posts: 672
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 6:34 am

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by crowberry »

Here is another presentation from Zap Energy. The presentation is by Eric Meier with the title Modeling Plasma Physics in the Z-pinch Fusion Concept. The talk was given at the 2022 Energy High Performance Computing Conference on the 1st of March 2022 https://2022energyhpcconference.sched.c ... on-concept.

This is the abstract of the presentation:
Keynote 3: Modeling Plasma Physics in the Z-pinch Fusion Concept by Eric Meier, Principal Computational Scientist at Zap Energy Inc.

Fusion energy has the potential to invigorate the atomic age and lead the way to a climate-friendly energy landscape. The technology required to generate hot, dense plasma, has been under development since WWII, and taming a zoo of plasma instabilities has proven difficult, leading to the construction of large, complicated fusion devices that employ strong external magnetic fields generated by superconducting coils. At Zap Energy, an alternative fusion concept called the sheared-flow-stabilized Z pinch is under development as a smaller, simpler, commercially viable platform requiring no external magnetic field.

A comprehensive, predictive modeling capability for Zap Energy’s Z-pinch technology is being developed in tandem with the experimental program. The WARPXM high-order discontinuous Galerkin framework developed at the University of Washington is the primary modeling tool. The framework uses unstructured triangular and tetrahedral grids for geometric flexibility. The high-order approach is arithmetically intensive and suitable for GPU acceleration, which is in progress. Standard fluid modeling of plasmas is insightful, and relatively computationally tractable, but some regions of the plasma demand kinetic modeling for high physical fidelity. Kinetic modeling entails capturing the Maxwell–Boltzmann velocity distribution with up to three dimensions of velocity space in addition to the physical space representation. Independent fluid and kinetic modeling of the core Z-pinch plasma has shown that sheared flows in the Z-pinch plasma mitigate instabilities that threaten to spring leaks in the magnetic confinement “bottle” of the Z pinch. Nonlinear relaxation can lead to a quasi-stable state, consistent with experimental findings. Plans will be discussed for simulating entire Z-pinch
The video of the presentation is 35 min 49 s long and available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O96MQtpU9Gs

crowberry
Posts: 672
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 6:34 am

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by crowberry »

Zap Energy is doing great progress with FuZE and it will be very interesting to see how their soon to begin research with FuZE-Q will work out. The latest status of Zap Energy can be read from this ARPA-E presentation: https://arpa-e.energy.gov/sites/default ... Nelson.pdf.

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by Skipjack »

Looks like they are a bit ahead in schedule with FuZE-Q, which they claim will start operation this summer already. Looking good for Q>1 late this year, early next year! Very exciting.

Giorgio
Posts: 3061
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:15 pm
Location: China, Italy

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by Giorgio »

Exciting indeed!
I am still worried about their ability to reach a stable shared flow regime in the sub 0.2 mm pinch radius, as I am afraid that the shared flow layer thickness will at a certain point be higher than the radius itself, but if they can prove it than indeed i do not see any other physics hurdle that can prevent them from reaching Q>1, it will become just a matter to correctly engineer the various components.
A society of dogmas is a dead society.

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by Skipjack »

Not much news in it, but ARPA-E has a small video featuring ZAP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZNBup-ifC4

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by Skipjack »

Big news from ZAP Energy:
First plasma in Fuze-Q and 160 million in additional funding!
https://www.zapenergyinc.com/news/first ... q-series-c

mvanwink5
Posts: 2143
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:07 am
Location: N.C. Mountains

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by mvanwink5 »

That was fast. I am not used to commissioning of a prototype that rapidly, but Zap Energy does tout their ability to rapidly prototype. They still have yet to commission their new power supply though.
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.

Giorgio
Posts: 3061
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:15 pm
Location: China, Italy

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by Giorgio »

Skipjack wrote:
Wed Jun 22, 2022 3:03 pm
Big news from ZAP Energy:
First plasma in Fuze-Q and 160 million in additional funding!
https://www.zapenergyinc.com/news/first ... q-series-c
Do you think that they will actually be able to make some test shots before the end of the year?
A society of dogmas is a dead society.

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by Skipjack »

Giorgio wrote:
Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:58 pm
Skipjack wrote:
Wed Jun 22, 2022 3:03 pm
Big news from ZAP Energy:
First plasma in Fuze-Q and 160 million in additional funding!
https://www.zapenergyinc.com/news/first ... q-series-c
Do you think that they will actually be able to make some test shots before the end of the year?
Well, first plasma would imply a test shot, I suppose. But they still have to build the new power supply before they can attempt break even. We will see how that goes with the current supply chain issues and whatnot.

mvanwink5
Posts: 2143
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:07 am
Location: N.C. Mountains

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by mvanwink5 »

With existing power supply, 500 KA is available and it would be no surprise if the previous set up is now being used to prove the new FuZE-Q. For higher current, the solid state switching should be able to be ganged, but there must be more to it as they have the shear flow to create. For the shear flow and current in it, who outside of the team can really know what the needs are?
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.

bennmann
Posts: 241
Joined: Sun May 17, 2009 5:56 pm
Location: Southeast US

Re: ZAP Energy News

Post by bennmann »


Post Reply