Liquid sodium (lithium) walled fusion reactor.

[Chris Bradley]

I came across Wisconsin's efforts in this regard the other day:

http://plasma.physics.wisc.edu/rwm/index.htm

I didn't realise they were trying this one out! I thought it was the preserve of some russian guy who dreamed it up, as most other folks though it was a bit bonkers!

Further to my comment in a recent thread, I guess Wisconsin really IS aiming to try out all methods without really judging their viability too harshly. And they seem skilled at getting DoE funding. Good on 'em!

Does anyone know how this project is going?

best regards,

Chris MB.

[Richard Hull]

Quick! Someone PINCH me!

Another pinch device. That which is old and dead is, thus, reborn...... As was the "all new" Princeton Stellarator. Not enough living horses to beat, I guess.

Still, I take my hat of to them for getting federal funding. That is always the first step towards doing real fusion, isn't it?

Richard Hull

[Chris Bradley]

Another web-pdf that may be of interest that I came across on DoE's url, in the same vein;

http://www.ofes.fusion.doe.gov/more_htm ... Wurden.pdf

which is a summary of all the fusion confinement ways in which DoE has chosen to be exploited. (dated 2005, for budget year 2007 - I can't find a more recent one)

Not that I am suggesting this is a bad thing. I'm all for it, myself. Our respective governments can either spend hundreds of millions of dollars getting some bright folks with crazy, ambitious aims to entertain and self-educate themselves whilst developing edgy technologies (even if the projects as a whole don't actually work) that commission, and cascade down to, other technology companies in one way or another, or they could save that money and as a percentage point, or less, for the budget for sticking their noses into a foreign country's business and creating mayhem, or maybe somewhere towards a millionth of the cost of not regulating their financial markets with due dilligence.(...etc...etc...I could go on but probably prudent not to do so!.....)

I'll stick with my view. Good on DoE for funding these things, even if they've not got a snowball's chance.... more of it, please..

[DaveC]

I read these as indications that nothing is really working well. So... it's back to the good ole scatter gun approach.

DOE seems to have reached senior dementia....state. Everything's all new.. every couple of years....


Hmmmm..

Dave Cooper

[Chris Bradley]

I've found another set of slides for the 2009 budget:

http://www.ofes.fusion.doe.gov/more_htm ... -final.pdf

IEC/POPS gets a mention on slide 40

[Richard Hull]

With hundreds of billions in bailout money on its way to the financial gurus, how will we fund any new energy efforts? The same way we have done in the past that makes the dollar worth less and less. Never turn off the money printing machines. Money? We've got it, you bet.

As the political election gets closer and minutia becomes important, it seems the latest hit is thrown against the republican VP candidate. It seems her hometown charged rape victims for the rape test kit exam. This is monumental of course.....

We fiddle as Rome burns.

The government, (taxpayers), of course, should just pay for everything, regardless. No one should actually shoulder blame or responsiblity for anything. Why don't we just take the rest of our lives off and let big brother care for us?

I first blamed the idiots buying stuff they couldn't afford for their own vile acts, but they had great teachers on spending what you don't have.... Business and the US Government. They taught us that debt is really wealth, sure it is virtual wealth, but that flew as sorta' real for the economy expanding econmists all throughout the 20th century.

Frederick Soddy, early radiation experimentalist and Nobel prize winner, sounded the alarm over his coined term "virtual wealth" but was laughed at for his ignorance and called down for being "outside his field".

More money for fusion? You've got it.....Just a few minutes work of the printing presses at the treasury bureau and it is fully funded for years to come.

Based on the range of minutia of politcal hacks and the megalithic disaster just averted, there is absolutely no reason we can't have it all. Nothing stands in our way other than the simple logic that the good ship lollipop is sinking.

Richard Hull