Is this part of EMC2 research finally coming to light?

Reflections on fusion history, current events, and predictions for the 'fusion powered future.
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Dan Knapp
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Re: Is this part of EMC2 research finally coming to light?

Post by Dan Knapp »

Original post of patent numbers has been corrected.
For some reason the Google Patent search function is having trouble pulling these up.
The direct links are:
http://www.google.com/patents/US20140301517,
http://www.google.com/patents/US20140301518,
http://www.google.com/patents/US20140301519
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Richard Hull
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Re: Is this part of EMC2 research finally coming to light?

Post by Richard Hull »

Give 'em a break it is only 5 years and it's a done deal.......Real soon now........Heard that loud and clear. We can wait for fusion. We are good at that.

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
ZackaryMiller
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Re: Is this part of EMC2 research finally coming to light?

Post by ZackaryMiller »

This reminds me of a statement by Hyman G. Rickover on the nature of (fission) reactor design.
An academic reactor or reactor plant almost always has the following basic characteristics: (1) It is simple. (2) It is small. (3) It is cheap. (4) It is light. (5) It can be built very quickly. (6) It is very flexible in purpose. (7) Very little development will be required. It will use off-the-shelf components. (8) The reactor is in the study phase. It is not being built now.
On the other hand a practical reactor can be distinguished by the following characteristics: (1) It is being built now. (2) It is behind schedule. (3) It requires an immense amount of development on apparently trivial items. (4) It is very expensive. (5) It takes a long time to build because of its engineering development problems. (6) It is large. (7) It is heavy. (8) It is complicated.
-Hyman G. Rickover

I belive that this design falls entirely into the former category and, after more development I belive that it shall either cease to exist or be brought into the realm of reality beyond paper and be far closer to what Rickover called a "practical reactor" with all of it's problems.

That being said I also hope I am wrong and it does become real to their original specifications; however, that seems unlikely as there will be significant technical hurdles and the reactor will need it's own systems designed custom, and I do not see that forthcoming in such a short time frame.
Paper Reactors, Real Reactors- a short paper by Hyman G. Rickover

No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.
-Edward Teller
Dan Tibbets
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Re: Is this part of EMC2 research finally coming to light?

Post by Dan Tibbets »

The Lockheed Skunkworks approach is not a Tokamak,or a Polywell or a FRC. It is reported to draw from these other approaches. I think it may most closely resemble a Polywell, except it apparently does not use electrostatic confinement of ions with an electrostatic potential well. Heating has to be by other means like neutral beam injection and microwaves. There appears to be some effort to reduce cusp losses and for viability a high Beta condition near one is needed, like in the Polywell. Still, I have the impression that cusp losses will be considerable and recirculation- ions and electrons looping around to another cusp for reentry is paramount. B field geometry may lead to edge instabilities in areas, and ExB ion cross field diffusion would seem to be a problem, but both areas have been addressed and solutions presented (I'm in no position to judge the viability).

They have apparently done some experiments. What experimental data has been obtained and its significance to the computer modeling is unknown.

Dan Tibbets
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Richard Hull
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Re: Is this part of EMC2 research finally coming to light?

Post by Richard Hull »

Where's th' beef! I know..."real soon now" ...."these guys are finally on the right track"...."this is the way forward"....
Fusion is the energy of the future and it always will be.

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
Jeroen Vriesman
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Re: Is this part of EMC2 research finally coming to light?

Post by Jeroen Vriesman »

https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/html5/htm ... p9Jfavwg==

A more recent video, with more technical details (after about 20 minutes of general propaganda)
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