In what sense do you think the GF prototype machine will be small? In 2009 they discussed a 2 m radius sphere, but since then the radius they mention for the prototype/full scale reactor has been 1. 5 m. The price tag of 100 M$ is lower though than the numbers they have thrown around earlier.mvanwink5 wrote:Real news courtesy of crowberry. Thanks as usual.
https://arpa-e.energy.gov/sites/default ... ABERGE.pdf
• Designing a ~1.5 m radius liquid lithium plasma formation and compression machine
• ~1MA of plasma current spherical tokamak starting plasma (MAST/NSTX class)
• Sub-breakeven but high performance (10 keV at 7e16 cm-3)
• Still costing the machine but estimate ~100 M$
• 3-5 years project
• Will try to raise this money towards the end of this year
I was surprised GF would go for this small machine due to decreased piston number and contamination thereby, but the lithium seems to be their workaround for that. I guess lower $ risk is the bottom line with non Gruberment guys. Also low oil price due to fracking has hurt the oil sands backers. Cash flow?
It would be interesting to know what kind of results General Fusion got from their PCS15 explosive test? Probably we will hear that at the next Fusion Power Associates meeting in December http://aries.pppl.gov/FPA/fpn17-16.shtml.