FAQ - Is there a limit to what a fusor can do?

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Richard Hull
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FAQ - Is there a limit to what a fusor can do?

Post by Richard Hull »

Yes, absolutely! Given a specific fusor, there will be numerous specific limitations based solely on construction issues that will forever limit its capability due to the physics built into the system.

Your insulator will limit your voltage and this will limit its ultimate capability to do fusion.
Your power supply will, likewise, limit its fusion capability.
Cleanliness of the running system as well as small fit and finish items will limit fusion capability as well.

Opearator issues are always a big limiting factor. (This is perhaps the biggest limiting factor extant in any fusion system.)

The longer one spends with a demo fusor in study and reading, the better his first pass at fusion will be. Star mode in a demo device usually signifies good assembly and vacuum system skills. This usually signals that one is skilled at some minimal level of operating in fusion mode.

Once fusion is achieved, continual operator familiarity with the system, any system, will pay off in increased capability of that system up to it "glass ceiling". This is the point where the operator is so familiar and skilled with his system that no more artifice in operational practice will move the system higher. At this point the failure to improve falls back on the design and power supply which are, now, doing all they can do.

From this point very minor physical upgrades will most certainly improve the systems capability. One of the most significant boosts would be to get a new supply and HV input insulator to allow for increased operational performance. Usually, a bit more learning at the controls will be needed to get used to the bringing up the fusion level in the new environment.

The upshot is to plan ahead so that the glass ceiling is about where you wish it to be in the construction phase and pray you can master the system, operationally, with practice to reach that glass ceiling provided by a properly designed system.

Good luck to all.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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Dennis P Brown
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Re: FAQ - Is there a limit to what a fusor can do?

Post by Dennis P Brown »

Richard, it might be useful to high-light that a smaller fusor can operate at much higher pressure and provide a far higher neutron flux for any given voltage/current. This point was really made clear by Garrett Young's recent work.
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Richard Hull
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Re: FAQ - Is there a limit to what a fusor can do?

Post by Richard Hull »

Regardless of any effort in any size at any power or any pressure, the final word is there will forever be a limit to what a fusor can do. Construction, applied voltage and pressure will impact those limits either in a positive or negative manner. This post was not about how to make a fusor better. Instead, this post's thread was that there is always a glass ceiling beyond which any given fusor system cannot be stretched. I have done a separate post regarding the new paradigm related to small chambers and their ability to handle higher pressures of D2.

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Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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