Talk-Polywell.org

So. We know the magnets are around .8T, and it will be pulsed.

That leaves some open questions as to how much other things might change. Size? Same geometry as WB-7 (which appears to have been slightly different than WB-6)?

Any guess at when operation will begin and results will be obtained? Predictions on containment and loss scaling?

What does TalkPolywell think?

First Plasma in 3-4 months.
Could the cusps be squeezed smaller? With the higher magnet power?

3-4 months is not far off for first plasma. Are we in a holding pattern waiting for rumors of initial WB-8 success? As I get older, I find my patience for anything is vanishing. What's up with that?

I've never been patient and I'm sure as hell not starting now.

I'm a little surprised we haven't heard more; with WB-8 going forward, I would have thought there'd be an Alan Boyle story at least.

Roger,

Intuitively you would expect that, but the cusps are supposed to be measured in electron gyroradii, which get larger with B, so I'm not sure. Maybe someone better grounded in theory can chime in.

The critical question seems to be how losses scale with B at beta=1. Hopefully we get some good data on that point.

I believe the Valencia paper discusses losses fairly thoroughly. You might try checking that out.

mvanwink5 wrote:3-4 months is not far off for first plasma. Are we in a holding pattern waiting for rumors of initial WB-8 success? As I get older, I find my patience for anything is vanishing. What's up with that?

I'm 64. It is just the opposite with me.

It will take as long as it takes.

MSimon wrote: I'm 64. It is just the opposite with me.

It will take as long as it takes.

Is she still then sending you a valentine, birthday greeting, bottle of wine?

That brings back fond memories of an earlier time and the realization that I am supposed to be feeling old now. But I am not feeling that way. Still, it looks like the design effort here has stalled such as design for SC coils, power, coolant, and supports. Perhaps that is just another mirage to disappear.

Cheers

I'm content to kick back and wait the next 18-24 months to see if polywell is going to work or not. I've done this kind of development work before and understand how long it can take and what a pain in the ass it can be to get anywhere. it always takes longer than you expect at the beginning.

If it does work, I think there's going to be a lot of private money flowing into it. If not, there is likely to be more interest in the various FRC concepts.

BTW, what happened to Art's threat to turn this into a Talk-FRC forum? I think his friend at U of W has a workable concept as well.

kurt9 wrote:I'm content to kick back and wait the next 18-24 months to see if polywell is going to work or not. I've done this kind of development work before and understand how long it can take and what a pain in the ass it can be to get anywhere. it always takes longer than you expect at the beginning.

If it does work, I think there's going to be a lot of private money flowing into it. If not, there is likely to be more interest in the various FRC concepts.

BTW, what happened to Art's threat to turn this into a Talk-FRC forum? I think his friend at U of W has a workable concept as well.

A successful hijacking attempt should start with doing something about the wikipedia article. You will not get proselytes without spreading the word.

The polywell has the advantage of, at least superficially, being easy for the layman to understand.

Torulf has already made some flashy FRC graphics. So you're on the way. Ask him if you have any further suggestions of other graphics.

It just seemed to me that there might be enough insight gained early into WB-8 that waiting for 18 to 24 months would be a lost opportunity to the private guys. Heavens knows, the utility guys could use a program to replace old boilers. I am not a big fan of bat and bird mulching machines that might not work in the dead of winter for a couple of weeks. If the confidence factor took a jump early, maybe the utility guys might bite along with a SC company looking for a new market. Maybe I am just dreaming.

Cheers

KitemanSA wrote:

MSimon wrote: I'm 64. It is just the opposite with me.

It will take as long as it takes.

Is she still then sending you a valentine, birthday greeting, bottle of wine?

Yes. It gets better every year.

And she knows of my English friend

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=ho ... art?ref=nf

and doesn't mind at all. Every man should be so lucky.

mvanwink5 wrote:That brings back fond memories of an earlier time and the realization that I am supposed to be feeling old now. But I am not feeling that way. Still, it looks like the design effort here has stalled such as design for SC coils, power, coolant, and supports. Perhaps that is just another mirage to disappear.

Cheers

The basics have been more or less worked out with alternatives explored. What is needed to move forward is experimental data and $$$.

With good experimental data the $$$ will not be hard to come by at all.

The only data point we have is that WB-7 has lead to WB-8. Thin gruel for design work. Thick with hope.

KitemanSA wrote:I believe the Valencia paper discusses losses fairly thoroughly. You might try checking that out.

Valencia is a good starting point, but it doesn't say much about cusp behavior in terms of scaling with B (partly because Bussard never got to build a large Polywell like WB-8 to actually measure WB scaling with B). Bussard had his theory of course, but I've seen 3 or 4 loss scaling equations thrown around here.

WB-8 results are critical now, even more critical than the WB-7 results were last year. From the RFP, it sounds like a reactor could be in the offing if WB-8 works out well.

The contractor shall deliver a conceptual design for a follow-on fusion demonstration device, WB-9. Conceptual studies will focus on the feasibility of extending the WB-8 results to this device and determining the suitability of this concept as a fusion reactor.

kurt9 wrote:BTW, what happened to Art's threat to turn this into a Talk-FRC forum? I think his friend at U of W has a workable concept as well.

Along those lines, I didn't know what FRC was, so for other newcomers as well I guess it looks like this:

• http://depts.washington.edu/rppl/progra ... intro.html