fusor

Tonight's "Top Ten List" of Fusion Projects Around the World

 In case you're not keeping score, here's a round-up of the most visible fusion projects around the world. And while the article notes that "even amateurs have done it," there's no mention among this Top Ten list of the Fusor or any of the individuals who are experimenting with it. In other words, if you don't have a big institutional budget, you just don't register on the radar.

Interest in nuclear fusion, in which atoms are forced to join and thus release some of their energy, has been on the rise along with the development of solar, wind and other renewable energy technologies. Fusion is the holy grail of energy: completely clean, using only water and other commonly available elements as fuel, and cheap.

The problem isn’t that scientists can’t produce fusion reactions; even amateurs have done it. It’s that all discovered fusion processes consume more energy than they produce. (The similarity of the terms can be confusing, so it’s worth a reminder that nuclear fission, in which atoms split, is the well-known technology that already keeps lights on in some homes.)

via industry.bnet.com

Yet Another Fusion "Breakthrough"

What's the old saw, "Nuclear fusion is 20-30 years in the future -- and always will be" ? Here's another example, from the University of Florida, as reported in the New Zealand Herald (huh?).

The University of Florida have taken a different tack, by putting hydrogen and boron fuel into an accelerator that fires them towards each other at incredibly high velocities. When the hydrogen and boron 11 atoms smash into each other, they fuse, producing fast moving helium nuclei whose motion is converted into electricity.

via www.nzherald.co.nz

Another "Student Fusor" Makes the News

 Every now and then, one of these basement fusor projects makes the local news. Here's an article from a recent edition of the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle about the fusor that Matthew Honickman built to start the New Year: 

"This is fun," he said. "For a lot of people, fusion seems kind of like something that's only done in really, really large, expensive government facilities."

Ted Kinsman, one of Honickman's science teachers at Brighton High School, said that he is aware of only a few high school students who have ever constructed fusors.

"It's quite an accomplishment," he said. "Basically, I applaud him. That's a lot of work."

The article says that Matthew hopes to be admited to either Cal-Tech or MIT next year. Either one of those institutions will do well to have a student like Matthew in their halls and classrooms -- assuming those institutions can give him free reign, as opposed to grinding his brain into orthodox forms of thinking.

Farnsworth's Pontiac St. Plant Slated for the Wrecking Ball?

Readers and Fusioneers familiar with the story of Philo Farnsworth's 1950s and 60s fusion research will recognize this as the address where that seminal research was conducted.  Apparently the building has served its purpose for its present owners: 

 

Indiana's NewsCenter has learned a demolition permit has been issued for the so-called Farnsworth Factory on Pontiac Street. The building originally housed the Capehart Corporation, which built radios and record changers. It was later sold to Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of electronic television who built TV sets at the site. The building’s also where Philo Farnsworth performed his experiments with nuclear fusion. No word yet on when the structure will be demolished. There are groups in Fort Wayne working to save it.

via www.indianasnewscenter.com

ITER On The Ropes

I guess that's what happens when you set out on a path that requires billions of dollars from dozens of countries -- just to light a match.

Construction at the site of ITER — the multibillion-euro project to prove controlled nuclear fusion — has been at a standstill since April, Nature has learned.

The stoppage comes as European contributors negotiate how to pay for their share of ITER, a collaboration between Europe, Japan, South Korea, Russia, the United States, China and India. The European Union (EU) is by far the largest participant, providing some 45% of construction costs, including the buildings that will eventually house the giant machine in St Paul lez Durance, in the south of France.

Excavations for the buildings, slated to begin this autumn, will not start until spring 2010 — roughly a year after site preparations were completed.

via www.nature.com

High Schooler makes as "Star In A Jar"

Hey kid, that's MY phrase.  I started using it in like 1975.  Get you're own clever phrase (just kidding...I think...). 

Eric Foss, a junior at Kentwood High School, won the second place grand award and $1,500 in the physics and astronomy category for his project titled “Star in a Jar” at the 2009 INTEL International Science & Engineering Fair in Reno, Nev. the week of May 10-15.

Foss was a winner at the Washington State Science & Engineering Fair and advance to the engineering fair

In addition, Foss won a first place award of $1,250 from the vacuum technology division of the American Vacuum Society.

As one of the first and second place winners, Foss will have a near earth asteroid named after him.

During the week of the fair, Foss also met new Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien and was interviewed by author Judy Dutton for her new book “Science Fair Season.”

Another "Cheap" Fusion Device...!?!?!

Well, sure, I guess, compared to the $14-billion they're going to blow on ITER, a mere $37-million sounds like chump change.

More specifically, General Fusion plans to make a metal sphere reactor that spins a liquid mixture of lithium and lead to create a vortex inside the sphere. Two spheromaks, or plasma rings kept together by a self-contained magnetic field, are injected into the sphere to create a target. At the same time, 220 pistons hit the outside surface of the sphere to create a shock wave that hits the plasma, compresses it, fuses the isotopes into helium, and releases energy-filled neutrons captured by the liquid mixture. The energy is extracted from the liquid with a heat exchanger to create steam to spin a power-generating turbine and to continue to run the reactor.

It sounds good on paper, but General Fusion has yet to develop 3-D simulations or build a test reactor. If the company can raise another $37 million, it hopes to have a prototype reactor ready in five years. With $500 million more in funding, the company will have a grid-ready reactor four years after that. These are a lot of "ifs", and we probably won't know the fate of General Fusion for at least half a decade.

Fusion Provides Another Premise for Cinema

First it was Doc Oc gone bizarro in whichever Spiderman sequel that was.  Now it's the indie film "Moon:"

It is the near future and Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), a sort of corporate engineer/astronaut is nearing the end of a grueling three-year stint as the sole manager of a space station on the far side of the Moon. His employer, Lunar Industries, harvests the Helium-3 embedded in the moon from solar winds billions of years ago to use in controlled nuclear fusion that remedies the effects of earth’s depleted resources. His only companionship comes in the form of the HAL 9000’s distant cousin, GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), a nearly sentient supercomputer that operates the station’s mechanical and electrical systems.

"This Has Made It All Worthwhile"

That's what Philo T. Farnsworth said to his wife as they sat in their living room on July 20, 1969, and watched Neil Armstrong take "one giant leap for mankind."  Watched.  Because of the thing that he invented 40+ years earlier. 

It's been said before, but bears repeating: amazing as the moon landing / walk were, the truly amazing thing was that a billion people were able to watch the whole thing unfold from their living rooms.

Another "Fusioneer" in the News

This time it's fusor.net regular Frank Sans featured featured in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

In the ordinary-looking garage of a home outside Pittsburgh, Frank Sanns is creating the power of the sun, with his "Pillar of Fire."

Moving between pieces equipment on a work bench and the floor, Sanns adjusts knobs and turns valves, while a vacuum pump hums and sucks air out of his creation: a tabletop nuclear fusion reactor.

"I need to get the air inside the chamber down to outer space conditions," Sanns said. The chemist-turned-banquet hall proprietor always wears a dosimeter, which measures radiation — just in case — he said.

Sanns is among about 100 amateur physicists, inquisitive types and out-of-the-box thinkers, many of which call themselves "fusioneers," who swap stories of where to buy power sources, vacuum chambers and deuterium gas.

They also pass along the results of their experiments in fusing hydrogen atoms. The process, if sustained, generates tremendous energy.

Scientists have chased fusion for about 50 years. The problem is not with creating fusion, the fusing of particles smaller than an atom. The problem is maintaining the process in a controlled way.

Well, yeah, it's a problem, if you're trying to "maintain the process" the wrong way, like, with giant energy-sucking magnets or lasers. 

Read the whole article, it's a comprehensive overview of the topic (even if it doesn't have a link anywhere to this site).