Talk-Polywell.org

As things are, the ZAP approach being close to target in additional technical effort, quite a stretch longer away from target plasmawise, a bold fail fast approach is a good strategy.

If it fails and there are some loose ends worthy of following up they will certainly get some funds for that also. In due time.

I think the good news for ZAP is that they will know very soon whether their approach holds up or not. They are moving quickly. Even Fuze-Q can get up to 1000 kA, only 250 kA away from a practical plant. But first it is 650 kA and if that still holds, then they will keep pushing higher and higher.
Will be interesting to watch for sure!

Santa Claus is coming to town:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHiG-G4NTPI

I see that the Zap Energy folks presented several papers at the 64th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics (October 2022) in Spokane, Washington. The titles are listed here, with links to the abstracts. Can anyone point to the full papers?

https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DPP22/Session/TP11

TP11.00051: Zap Energy Shear Flow Stabilized Z Pinch Reactor Results and Concept
Benjamin J Levitt, Brian A Nelson, Uri Shumlak

TP11.00052: X-ray Diagnostics for the Flow-Shear-Stabilized Z-Pinch
Lucas A Morton, Aria R Johansen, Glen A Wurden, Anton D Stepanov, Chelsea Liekhus-Schmaltz, Will McGehee, Benjamin J Levitt

TP11.00053: Radiation Emission and Evolution of Sheared-Flow-Stabilized Z-Pinches on FuZE and FuZE-Q
Aria Johansen, Pi-En Tsai, Amanda E Youmans, Lucas Morton, Glen A Wurden, Drew P Higginson, Uri Shumlak

TP11.00054: Measurements and Monte Carlo Simulations of DD Fusion Neutrons Generated by FuZE
Pi-En Tsai, Aria Johannsen, Amanda E Youmans, Drew P Higginson, Brian A Nelson, Benjamin J Levitt

TP11.00055: Optical tracking of Low-Z Impurities in a Stabilized Z Pinch through EUV-VIS Emission
Andrew Taylor, Aidan W Klemmer

TP11.00056: Two-fluid modeling of linear and nonlinear stability of the sheared-flow-stabilized Z pinch
Eric T Meier, Uri Shumlak

TP11.00057: Whole-Device Modeling of the FuZE Device
I. A. M. Datta, Eric Meier, Uri Shumlak, Peter Stoltz, Noah Reddell, Nolan van Rossum, Anton D Stepanov, Lucas Morton, Morgan Quinley, Aria R Johansen, Pi-En Tsai

TP11.00058: Sheath Effects for Electrode Research at Zap Energy
Peter H Stoltz, Eric Meier, Iman Datta, Uri Shumlak, Morgan Quinley

TP11.00060: Fusion Power Systems Engineering Program at Zap Energy
Matthew C Thompson, Alex Cheung, Vidya Nalajala, Clemente J Parga, Sean C Simpson

TP11.00061: Improved S/XB Measurements on the Sheared-Flow-Stabilized Z-Pinches at Zap Energy
Clyde J Beers, Andrew Taylor, Sean C Simpson, Ben Levitt, Matthew C Thompson

TP11.00062: Spectroscopic investigation of plasma-material interactions on the ZaP-HD sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch device
Amierul Aqil b Khairi, Bennett H Diamond, Eric T Meier, Uri Shumlak

Not really much news, but still might interest some here:
https://www.fusion-energy-news.com/zap- ... ion-energy

ZAP has launched a blog:

https://www.zapenergy.com/blog

Twitter update from ZAP:

https://twitter.com/Energy_Zap/status/1 ... 3I4fMtAAAA

Looks like FuZE-Q is now exceeding 600 kA. Neutron yield has increased by an order of magnitude. Plasma temperature is about 50% increased. Still got some way to go but this might not be the latest results and I believe they are still upgrading the power supply too...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fw_IfuTaYAA ... =4096x4096

Sharp eyes.

I thought that 600A would put Zap over the top. Still, it is a big increase, and still stable. Is it too early to be optimistic?

Do I read right 10^9 neutrons per pulse?

Seems very low, even with I^11 scaling and DD?

The abstracts submitted for the ICOPS 2023 conference can be found through the link at the end of this message. Zap Energy had at least six contributions at the conference if you search for the author Shumlak. The abstracts on that page were written before the conference so the results presented at the conference can report slightly better results as can be seen on the photograph of the poster posted on Twitter. Reading those abstracts it can be seen that Zap Energy has to understand and work around the effects of plasma impurities, some of which come from erosion of the cathode in their devices. This is of course due to the rather large currents they have in a rather small geometry. These problems are similar to those that LPP Fusion has been struggling with for the past several years, but of course the physics and the geometry is different in the Z-pinch.

[Analysis of line emission identified oxygen (O-III, O-IV, O-V, and O-VI), peaking in intensity shortly after maximum current (>500 kA). This work provides a foundation for future high energy spectroscopy experiments on SFS Z-pinch devices.

For the “conventional” use of D-T, it appears possible to achieve a scientific breakeven demonstration at megampere currents in pinch column lengths less than a meter. Such currents are well within the capabilities of low-impedance pulsed power systems [3] at multi-megajoule levels. For power reactor operation, higher currents are needed and/or longer pinch lengths. With higher currents and larger dimensions, the use of so-called advanced fuels may be feasible. To achieve this will require further research to establish the necessary control of plasma gun operation to supply the pinch flow, and great precision to obtain the needed sub-millimeter pinch diameters.

It will be interesting to see how Zap Energy is able to scale up the performance in their devices.

https://eventclass.org/app/icops2023/#/authorIndex

Thanks Crowberry for the navigation to the abstracts. LPP with their limited budget seems to have dealt with the impurities & ZAP seems to believe that impurities will not be a show stopper. Real life is always tough, though.

I assume that the >600A test results were with their now operational FuZE-Q test device & not their earlier device FuZE.

mvanwink5 wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 12:57 am

Thanks Crowberry for the navigation to the abstracts. LPP with their limited budget seems to have dealt with the impurities & ZAP seems to believe that impurities will not be a show stopper. Real life is always tough, though.

Yes, Zap Energy seems to think that the impurity and erosion problems can be worked around. But it will make things harder and might introduce delays from what they have anticipated originally. Presumably they need to improve their power supplies for these reasons.

mvanwink5 wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 12:57 am

I assume that the >600A test results were with their now operational FuZE-Q test device & not their earlier device FuZE.

Yes, I think so too. The abstract on the poster photograph from Twitter has these sentences:

Current efforts aim to scale the pinch current, plasma density and plasma temperature to reach scientific breakeven in the 4th generation Fusion Z-pinch Experiment-Q (FuZE-Q). Experimental campaigns have steadily increased the pinch current, stability duration and DD fusion neutron production. We've recently achieved record pinch current , >600 kA, electron temperature > 3 keV, ion temperature > 2.5 keV and neutron yield >1e9/pulse.

Zap Energy got $5 Million of new funding from the DOE $46 Million Milestone-Based Fusion Development programme for a project with the title Development of a Fusion Pilot Plant Design Based on a Sheared-Flow-Stabilized Z Pinch. In connection with the article about this new grant there is this quote:

Zap set a goal of reaching breakeven this year, though Shumlak admitted on Wednesday that the time frame “is going to be challenging.”

But achieving commercial energy production by the end of the decade is tenable, he said. “We’re making really strong progress and proving out some of the scaling.”

https://www.geekwire.com/2023/zap-energ ... ion-power/