ladajo wrote:If an ion escapes, there are ways to recover it, or its energy. The loss of (e-)s is a direct impact to power in, which in turn is directly related to Q.
You have that backwards. Escaping electron energy can be recovered by the potential difference between the magrid and the surrounding shell (supposing they don't blow past that shell through a hole intended for fusion ions). An ion that escapes will be accelerated by that same potential difference, but be left with far too little energy for direct conversion systems to work.
Granted, electron losses appear to dominate energy losses in a polywell, but reducing ion losses as a freebee effect from the wiffleball is a small win.
I was not thinking of the direct capture concept. I was thinking of pulling them out of the vacuum stream, and re-using them as fuel again.
Ion injection is not (as far as we know) a significant Power In component. Thus do not have a real impact on machine efficiency from that perspective.
And again, I allow for the convenience factor of some ions getting a few more passes (and possible reactions) before escape than they would have. I am just saying that wiffleball is not about ions, it is about (e-)s.
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
I am also not sure your concept of recovering eV from escaped (e-)s is viable given how I understand things are biased. I think they ground out and are lost. Thus the drama of confinement. If we could recover the energy, then why the worry about confinement? Are you thinking that confinement is just to make the well?
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
If EMC2 is still using a positively charged MaGrid to provide the energy to the electrons then when the electrons escape the MaGrid, they redeposit the bulk of their energy back into the system by slightly increasing the potential difference tween MaGrid and wall, losing only that portion they may have gained by scattering within the core. When upscattered IONS escape the MaGrid, they absorb energy across the potential and loose it all at the wall.
Of course, if EMC2 has somehow changed the charge balances between the wall and the MaGrid...