Security - Polywell & EMP

[djolds1]

"One question -- would a Polywell reactor be susceptible to an EMP [attack]? If so would it wreck it, or just put it out temporarily?"

[Aero]

The Polywell itself could be EMP hardened. The grid would suffer the same result no mater the energy source.

[DeltaV]

The weak links are the CPUs, etc. in the control electronics. These would fry long before the magrid coils or heavier-duty power electronics.

[Stoney3K]

"One question -- would a Polywell reactor be susceptible to an EMP [attack]? If so would it wreck it, or just put it out temporarily?"

It would just shut the thing down and cause some (probably costly, but reparable) equipment damage, like any other power plant.

There's no way any attack can make a fusion plant go runaway and start a supercritical reaction on its own. The first line of defense is shutting down the fuel flow to the reactor anyway.

Fission plants are different, since they have more fuel in the reactor chamber than is required to produce power at one instant. Think of the difference like a gas stove (fusion) versus a pile of burning wood (fission).

A serious attack could cause some catastrophic damage to support structuress like the vacuum vessel, and possibly cause an implosion or cause superconducting magnets to fail, but nothing that can wipe out an entire civilised area.

[DeltaV]

Oh yeah, I forgot about quenching of superconducting magnets...

See recent CERN history.