Polywell Fusion Update
Dr. Nebel’s team now reportedly has their plasma up to high power, according to MSNBC Cosmic Blog author Alan Boyle.
Currently, the most promising path toward electrostatic fusion runs through Santa Fe, N.M., where a team at EMC2 Fusion Development Corp. is currently trying to validate Bussard’s results. The team’s leader, Richard Nebel, told me this week that it’s still too early to gauge how promising the Bussard fusion device could be.
“We’re getting high-power plasma,” he said. “We don’t have answers … [but] we’re far enough along that we know we’re going to get answers.”
Who knows? Maybe the dark horse in this race will pull off a surprise or two yet.
Heady days for those of us who were just hoping to get this funded this time last year.
Alan’s previous entries mentioning Polywell fusion are here and here.
Dr. Nebel has been kind enough to chime in over at TalkPolywell.org now and then. This observation of his, while a little technical, is worth noting:
…let me suggest the following exercise. Let’s assume that a Polywell reactor is in the wiffleball mode, namely that:
n*kBolt*Te = B**2/(2*mu0)
to make it simple, let’s use mks units and assume B = 10 Tesla, mu0 =4.0e-7*pi, Te = 1.0e4 eV and kBolt = 1.6022e-19 Joules per eV.
Calculate what n is and compare it to the ITER value at http://www.iter.org/a/index_nav_4.htm Tell me what you get.
…
What you will find is that the average density of ITER is ~ 1.0e20/m**3. If you use the formula I sent you for the Polywell, you will get a density ~ 2.5e22/m**3. The upshot of this is that the Polywell has a power density that is ~ 62500 times bigger than ITER EVEN IF THERE IS NO ION CONVERGENCE! Thus, a Polywell should far outperform a Tokamak even with a constant density Maxwellian plasma.
OK, that was probably way too technical.
Basically, he’s saying that one of the primary criticisms of Polywell fusion’s viability — that it would collapse to thermal equilibrium rather than maintaining a core region of higher energy density — might not matter, even though that criticism is probably wrong anyway.
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4 comments
May God make it so.
Dean,
Dr. Nebel is getting a little help from his friends.
A discussion between jmc and myself prompted his reply.
Dave,
Isn’t it great having the lead guy commenting? BTW did you note his latest on what he can say and what he can’t?
No, didn’t see. Have to check that out, thanks.
Hmmm, that’s interesting. Good of him to set expectations.
Sounds like he might be open to anything that doesn’t involve release of data. Just knowing that the wiffleball does what it was expected in general terms to would be a lot.
I wonder who’s on that review panel, and if they’ve already been chosen. Wouldn’t mind being a fly on the wall in that meeting!
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