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: A heretical thought
Date: Mar 15, 6:14 pm
Poster: IJV

On Mar 15, 6:14 pm, IJV wrote:

This is the basic history of the Farnsworth Fusor as I understand it (some correct me if I'm wrong).

In Farnsworth's original fusor, ion guns were used to accelerate the ions to the center of the fusor.

These ion guns were complicated, and suffered from a number of problems, such as aligning them properly (and probably a few others that I'm not aware of).

Hirsch & Meeks simplified Farnsworths orginal desgin drastically by replacing the ion guns with spherical grids.

These grids have their own problems (especially the inner grid), such as heat dissipation, ion erosion, 'transparency', and arc discharges.

The thought that popped into my head the other day is - have there been any technological advances over the last 30 years to make looking at reintroducing the ion guns worthwhile?????.

I'm particulary thinking of the areas of modern controls systems and power electronics. e.g could a modern control system overcome the alignment problems (I'm assuming that the alignment problem was dynamic in nature). Or could modern power electronics, and a fancy control system allow us to simultaneously fire the ions guns in pulsed mode.

Just wondering,
IJV