Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Re: Yet another fusor attempt
Date: Sep 21, 12:41 pm
Poster: Carl Willis

On Sep 21, 12:41 pm, Carl Willis wrote:

Thanks for introducing me to this list, Richard...

After recieving info from Richard and talking with someone at K-state, I have gone ahead with ordering 49 l of 99.5% deuterium from Spectra. As for the rest of the proposed system, I might as well say what I can:

It will be differentially pumped (in the sense that deuterium will be fed to the anode via small glass tubes) and we have a little turbo pump that can probably get us down to a base pressure of 1E-6 torr. The problem with the gas feed that might happen is if pressure is too low in the feed tube, a discharge will run up the tube. With proper outlet dimensions I think this can be prevented. Any thoughts are welcome!

I plan to make the electrodes out of 3 concentric loops each of Mo (or even W if I can figure out how to hold it together.)

The anode will be the only "hot" electrode. Power is designed to come from a chain of doublers and microwave-oven transformer, providing up to (my guess) about 60 kV max. I suspect that this supply cannot support a high continuous current, but will instead make pulses every AC cycle that will develop the necessary voltages for fusion. *IF anyone knows where to get a cheap x-ray transformer, let me know!!*
Getting this voltage through the stainless vacuum vessel will be an adventure.

I'd also like to get more electrons into the fusor, since it is my understanding that the only way to furnish electrons for the multipaction process in the conventional setup is via electrode bombardment. So I might just try to put an unused ion guage on the vessel somewhere to toss out a few more electrons.

Let me know what you think, what improvements you recommend, etc. I think this will be fun and educational project!

-Carl
cwillis@guilford.edu
(336) 316 3098