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: Hypothetical IEC
Date: Jul 12, 07:37 am
Poster: Blair Bromley

On Jul 12, 07:37 am, Blair Bromley wrote:

>I see your point and I like your honesty Mr. Hull.
>
>I can tell you that Miley does have a plan for a new veriation of his devices that could solve almost every problem with the IEC concept to the level were it might reach brake even.
>
>More on that in the future.
>
>Thank you for you honesty.
>
>Also is Bussard's new concept the EXL concept that I read about here.

I'm assuming here that you are referring to
R.W. Bussard's Polywell Concept, which is a variant of the IEC device. It uses arrangement of
electromagnets and/or permanent field magnets to
create a roughly spherically symmetric well for
trapping electrons. The electrons are then used
to trap fusion fuel ions electrostatically.
Tom Dolan (a former University of Illinois graduate student) investigated both conventional
IEC devices and later pursued magneto-electrostatic confinement. He translated
several of O. Lavrent'yev's papers on the
same subject. Dolan appeared to believe that
a system along the lines of Bussard's Polywell
was the way to go; Lavrent'yev thought
so too; steady-state gridded IEC systems were
thought to not be able to overcome power
losses to the grid and to bremmstrahlung
radiation. Lavrent'yev did mention, however,
that pulsed IEC systems had a chance, and he
put forth a number of designs for ion
injection systems from a glow discharge in
a spherical system.

Trying to get a handle on the plasma physics is really tough, and unfortunately, there is not
a lot of public financial support (read
government funding) to help this along.
Theoretical/computational analysis is absolutely
necessary to help advance IEC technology.
Doing experiments alone is much slower and
more expensive.

Consider Tokamak fusion technology: they still
don't have a good handle on both the global
and local plasma physics of those devices; that's
why they have built over 50 of the darn things,
and the answer has always been the same:
"We still don't understand what's going on;
extrapolation of the experimental data suggests
that we may reach break-even if we build a
bigger device".

Best Regards,

Blair

>I know that he was telling the NAVY that it would be braking even in about 8 months but 4 months have already past.

Hmmm. I'll believe it when I see it. Data,
and all the documentation.