fusor

New Links for Newbies

I've added a couple of new links over in the "Newbies" section in the column on the right.  I also had to "number" them to get them in the order I prefer. 

New item #02.1 is a direct link to 2008 update of Tom Ligon's seminal "The World's Simplest Fusion Reactor."  The new version includes a detailed account of Dr. Robert Bussard's  final efforts  with his "WB" (for "Wiffle Ball") reactors prior to his death in October of 2007.

I've also dropped in a link, #05.1 to Richard Hull's post to the forums recounting the "History of the Amateur Fusion Effort." This post is recommended reading for anybody who wants to know how we got here (wherever "here" is...).

Thank You For Playing

...and for finding  another way to waste billions on a ridiculous fusion scheme.

The headline for this article actually says these blokes are going to "recreate the sun:"

A NUCLEAR fusion laboratory designed to recreate the temperatures and pressures inside the sun could be built in Oxfordshire under plans being drawn up by British scientists The aim is to build the world’s most powerful lasers and use them to blast tiny pellets of hydrogen fuel to create energy.

Of course, that's EXACTLY how the sun works:  giant laser beams from somewhere at the edge of the solar system converge on a pellet of hydrogen at the center...

No, wait... that's NOT how the sun works at all. 

Next guess?

Tom Ligon's "Analog" Article is Now Available Online

Long time followers of the forums on  this website will recognize the name of Tom Ligon as one of the prime instigators of the whole, world-wide basement/garage (I hate the word "amateur") fusor project.  It all began, really, when Tom -- who has worked with Dr. Robert Bussard -- wrote an article about the fusor for Analog magazine and then took up the topic with our own Richard Hull.

Tom has recently updated that seminal Analog article, "The World's Simplest Fusion Reactor" with a detailed recount of some of Dr. Bussard's contributions to the art as well as a round up of the work that is being done by the contributors to this website.

The article is now available online and can be downloaded as a .pdf file (from Mark Duncan's "askmar.com" website).

"Consider this a beta posting," Tom cautions, "as I have spotted a minor bug in one of the figures, which I will shortly point out to him."

Even with an outstanding correction, this paper is possibly the best single primer on the grassroots fusion movement that you'll find today. 

Thanks, Tom.

--PS
 

Got Fusion?

Here's a colorful primer on that great Nuclear Fusion reactor in the sky:

Life on Earth is absolutely dependent on the Sun. If it suddenly shut down, it would take eight minutes for our world to be plunged into total darkness.

Its energy comes from nuclear fusion taking place deep in its core. Heat and pressure at the center force hydrogen atoms together to make heavier helium. This process releases unimaginable amounts of energy, similar to the explosion of a hydrogen bomb.This energy travels slowly through the Sun's surface (its journey takes over 200,000 years). Here, it escapes into space as heat and light, making life possible here on Earth.

What's a Few More Billion

....when your country is already drowning in red ink and paper money?  Not much, according to Tennessee's own Lamar Alexander, freshly minted authority on all things nuclear. Lamar laments that the U.S. is not contributing more to the the billion dollar boondoggle in France:

"That's an embarrassing mistake by Congress. That's what it is," Alexander said Friday during a visit to Oak Ridge, where he attended the annual meeting of the East Tennessee Economic Council.

In its omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal 2008,

Congress included only $10.7 million for U.S. work on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor - a multinational, multibillion-dollar project that's supposed to demonstrate the capabilities of nuclear fusion as an unlimited energy source for the 21st century.

From Farmville to Fusion

Another student has built himself a basement fusion reactor, as recently reported in a Springfield (IL) newspaper:

Link: It's Only Rocket Science - News - Springfield Connection - Connection Newspapers.

Call him Springfield's resident genius. Andrew Grzankowski, a graduate of West Springfield High School, spent his summer vacation building a fusion reactor at Longwood University in Farmville.

"I wanted to do something different," said Grzankowski, now a senior at Longwood. "I read a magazine article about a high school student who did this and I figured we should be able to get better equipment."

Can You Trust A Politician...

...who is not even remotely familiar with the concept of nuclear fusion? 

That's the question that comes to mind after reading that of the question that was posed to John Edwards at a campaign event in New Hampshire recently:

Another man, Howard Epstein, asked Mr. Edwards whether he supported nuclear fusion in the context of mining on the moon.

“You are over my head now,” said Mr. Edwards in a frank response that may very well have been shared by audience members who were not science-minded. “You are asking me if I would support what?”

I realize that I'm an unrealistic dreamer, but sometimes I think it would be nice if people who were running for high office had a grander view of the universe than petroleum -v- ethanol.

There's A Story Behind This Picture

...and it's not the one you think you've heard before.

Richard Hull has stayed in close touch with all the living members of the Farnsworth/ITT Pontiac Street fusion lab from the 1960s, and has compiled the most complete history of that project exists today.  Sadly perhaps, as some members of the team have passed on to that Great Laboratory in the Sky, Richard is able to share with us some stories that have previously not seen the light of day.

Yesterday Richard offered up this lengthy post to the "Fusion History and News" section of the Fusor.net Forums.  The story he tells, which was first told to him by the late Gene Meeks, is controversial, if not down right explosive.  The money quote:

On the day of the proof of performance test, Gene was told to go into the next room and listen during the ITT testing for the high voltage call out and as it climbed, he was to play the tester spark along a massive fume hood intermittently and at the maximum fusor voltage call out he was to arc the tester closely and at a fixed point on the hood until the callout of decending fusor voltage. when he would again walk the tester loosely along the large hood. This was the illicitly generated count that launched a bigger funding from ITT to create the more successful real future fusion efforts and boost the stock as well as bring Farnsworth into the spotlight, more so than had his work in television, at least for a while.

The now-familiar photos of Farnsworth posing with the "top hat" or "bell-jar" fusor circa 1959-61 were taken as a result of the publicity campaign that ITT mounted in the wake of the demonstration that Richard describes in his post.  The irony, of course, if we're to believe Gene Meeks via Richard Hull, is that the fusor that Farnsworth is posing with here was obsolete even before the photo was taken. 

Link: Fusion History & News - Revealing More Fusion History.

NPR Talks About Fusion

...and, not surprisingly, the ITER project in France is not only sucking all the money out of the room, it's getting all the media attention.  $12-billion to get "close" to the actual goal of producing actual electricity.  Follow the link to listen to the report:

Researchers Seek to Recreate Fusion Power.

Morning Edition, August 20, 2007 · In southern France researchers are working on an idea for producing essentially limitless power without greenhouse gases. They're building a massive machine that will recreate what usually only happens in stars or the sun — fusion. That's where two atoms become one, and release energy.

David Kestenbaum's report begins by saying "There's a joke about fusion:  it's the energy source of the future, and always will be."  Except, without it, there probably is no future.

Helium 3 from the Moon

Here's a pretty good primer on why all the interest in mining He3 from the moon, including shots of what appears to be a grid-based IEC type device:

The continuation of this film can also be found here at YouTube Thanks for forum member Zixinus for the links.