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, 00:15 am
Poster: Richard Hull

On Jul 12, 00:15 am, Richard Hull wrote:

>So, let me get this straight, the ability of Inertial Electrostatic Confinement fusion can't be improved by increasing voltage, can't be improved by ion gun injection and if I'm not wrong you stated in a past statement that pulsing would cause arcing.
>
>So, exactly were does the hope for IEC's that can reach brake even reside in.

*************************

A careful study of my postings from day one, post one, will verify my personal feelings all along that....

1. ITT, Farnsworth, Princeton, LANL, the fusor, the spheromak, the tokomak, all... all .... all, have never and shall never, ever, hit break even, They shall never self sustain. Those caliming such have mislead the public and have consistently not summed every device power needed to make the system function.

2. That this entire adventure for me was to produce neutrons for experimentation and do honest to God hot fusion on the cheap with out even the slightest hope of achieving better that .00001% efficiency. (this is a goal I am still struggling for as I have measured only about .0000001% thus far.)

3. To assist other amateur fusion and fusor enthusiasts to get up and running.


At no time have I stated that this is the way to the future of fusion energy. On the contary, in several past postings, I have re-stated, time and time again that the fusor and all current hot fusion efforts are lost causes. Most of those for which there is massive funding are just government funded make-busy projects for excess physicists, engineers and technicians.

Others may wish to or seek out their own personal quests and causes whether rigidly defined or totally nebulous.

In short, the Farnsworth Fusor IEC concept and the Hirsch/Meeks variant in particular is just plain FUN!

Richard Hull

************************************


>
>I mean you can't use voltage to increase velocities or particle currents and you can't use ion guns to increase density and you can't use pulsing to increase either, because it will cause arcing, that equals = no hope.
>
>Bussard and Miley are wasting there time?
>
>I mean these methods are the hope of the IEC devices.
>So were is the possibility for a brake even?
>
>Oh, by the way if pulsing causes arcing why is Miley doing it with so much success?
>I've seen this Myself.

*******************************

Pulsing will, in theory, create lots of deuterons due to the higher current. I have noted this in a number of prior posts, especially with hydrogen thyratron drive systems. This is an area which can be explored by amaterurs, but, and this is the snag,... How do you count the neutrons?!!! I have tried, I have the neutron detection gear here! The pulses used in my system were about 5 orders of magnitude over the normal 10ma CW operating levels. Most of the current in the simple fusor are electron currents and not deuteron currents. The average pulse lasts about 1-5us in a well damped system and this swamps out the detector.

Amateurs are just not prepared, monetarily to finance extreme advances in the simple system.

Most all lack specific knowledge and skills to handle or design their own more complicated instrumentation. Of all on this list I know of only 3 with any decent neutron counting capability.

It is not that there is no hope for hot fusion, there is just no hope for anyone on this list actually doing extremely advanced research into much more complicated devices that those presented. I have not seen but two others offer up specific data based on hard nosed experiments where fusion was actually done. A third is poised to follow and 2 or 3 others have made demo systems.

Discussion is always welcome, but without experiment, it is still a pipe dream of maybes or spread sheet modelers.

It is unquestioned that Miley's efforts are the only real long term fusor effort currently underway. Bussard is working on a new tack which is hopeful, but still a bit away from a formal experiment. They are not wasting there time, but they are spending sums far beyond the reach of even the most wealthy among this lists posters.

I am not saying there is no hope for hot fusion, nor am I saying that IC or IEC is dead. It is just that all current systems are losers. (provided we are looking for over unity, fully self sustaining fusion reactions)

Richard Hull