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FAQ - More on "the right stuff" in fusor operation

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 1:32 pm
by Richard Hull
Due to recent work by Andrew Seltzman, I feel it is important to stress why he has continued to progress and why the very few others here obtain in excess of one million neutrons per second from our fusors. ( Well over 3 million + fusions every second in a few cases)

The fusor is a pretty terrible device for doing fusion, in the sense of serious fusion efforts. It will never do efficient fusion. As a matter of fact it is probably the worst fusion reactor ever designed for that purpose. WHY?!

The fusor bull-heads fusion like going at a brick wall with your head. It is not elegant or scientifically ingenious. Its original concept, while theoretically viable and very interesting, falls on its face in reality. The fact that the bulk of fusion in a fusor is not produced as originally conceived is not important. We now know that other processes are extant that do fusion within our device which were not actually part of the original design modus operandi. An undiscovered bonus, if you will.

Theories abound regarding these other processes and their relative contributions to the net fusion output of the average amateur fusor. These are not part of this FAQ. What is part of the current discussion is that, given a simple amateur fusor of proper construction, it is a matter of application of power, (voltage and current), and pressure of the deuterium environment within the reactor vessel that makes or breaks the resultant fusion numbers. We learn that the fusor works best when "conditioned". This tends to hint at other factors. I will leave this as an exercise for the student.

The device is just an assemblage of parts. Due to its very crude nature, It is all about operational technique and an understanding of what makes the system perform better that wins the day. Most of what tends to be a snare to the feet of any given fusor system, once enough voltage and current are in hand, is the operator himself! It is his or her lack of understanding of the narrow zone or "window" of operational performance, gas behavior and material science, all bound up in this operational venue that tends to foil the average, casual fusioneer's first efforts.

Only with continued operation and careful observation with good instrumentation, will the skill and art of improved operation take hold in the mind of the operator. With this and a lot of knowledge far beyond the scope of IEC theory will it become apparent that other factors are at play outside of the simple considerations around collision cross sections in velocity space. "Boosters", not considered at first, enter the picture. I will not opine here on those factors, as I have talked about them here before.

One thing quickly becomes apparent, the fusor works best when operated on a "razor's-edge", a regime so finely tuned at each application of specific voltages and current and pressures, that only operational art need apply to keep it there and even recognize it is there!

The upshot is that improved fusion can be had from any properly constructed fusor, only from continued operational awareness over multiple runs, over and over again. The fusor does fusion based on numerous scientific principles. It does fusion better based solely on operational artifice. This artifice, once developed, forces the scientific mind to search for good scientific reasons why art is involved at all!

Richard Hull