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June 16, 2009
The Boys At Talk-Polywell Have Struck Paydirt
The boys at Talk Polywell have uncovered the details of the WB-8 contract [pdf]. Those details can give us some insight into how WB-7 has gone. From the looks of things - rather well. The current effort will build on what has been completed under these previous contracts as well as requirements to provide the Navy with data for potential applications of AGEE with a delivered item, wiffleball 8 (WB8) and options for a modified wiffleball 8 (WB8.1) and modified ion gun. The objective of this procurement is validation of the basic physics of the AGEE concept as well as requirements to provide the Navy with data for potential applications of AGEE. It builds upon previous concept-demonstration bench top versions of plasma wiffleballs. As such, it comes under the FAR 35.001 definition of applied research. The contract will be for a wiffleball 8 with 2 options for modifications to the wiffleball based upon it's success.OK. They are going into deeper validation. Which means WB-7 went OK. 3.1.1 The Contractor shall construct and test a small-scale MG Insulated, Wiffleball Polyhedral Device, WB8. WB8 shall be built based on results of WB7 (built under contract N68936-03-C-0031) and shall utilize design and performance knowledge gained from test of prior WB machines.Circular coils means that there will be no significant change in geometry. That is good. Apples to apples comparisons. An increase of field strength by a factor of 8 means - if the scaling laws hold a factor of about 4,000 increase in power out. If WB-7 was similar to WB-6 it means an increase from 3 neutrons a shot to 12,000. A real countable number i.e the error bars will be much lower. A count of 3 can actually be considered a count of 3 +/-2. That is a big error bar. For 12,000 the error bar is on the order of +/-100 about 1%. That makes improvements or degradations of 5% easily detectable. Where as in the first situation (WB-6/7) changes that doubled or halved the output rate would be hard to detect. 3.1.4 Within 30 days of build and test of WB8, the contractor shall provide a predictive model of WB behavior including data points for detailed 2D/3D profile measurements of plasma density, ion energy and WB magnetic field structure during follow-on tests to validate the scientific basis for a Polywell fusion power reactor, and guide further research. The contractor shall coordinate with the Government for a program review meeting at the contractor's facilities to be held no later than 40 days after the testing of the WB8 and shall provide the detailed predictive model and data points at this program review meeting.The magnetic profile of an operating device is critical for knowing how the device actually operates. Without that it is very difficult if not impossible to design in improvements. 3.1.6 The contractor shall deliver a conceptual design for a follow-on fusion demonstration device, WB-9. Conceptual studies will focus on the feasibility of extending the WB-8 results to this device and determining the suitability of this concept as a fusion reactor. This design will be delivered at the end of the contract.So the program is starting to take on a life of its own. A WB-9 device is already under consideration even before experiments on WB-8 are even completed. This indicates a fair amount of confidence in the forthcoming results. Excellent. Now here comes what I consider the most critical requirement of WB-8testing. 3.2.1 Enhanced Ion Drive with PB11 (proton/boron 11): Based on the results of WB8 testing, and the availability of government funds the contractor shall develop a WB machine (WB8.1) which incorporates the knowledge and improvements gained in WB8. It is expected that higher ion drive capabilities will be added, and that a "PB11" reaction will be demonstrated. The contractor shall investigate and validate the plasma scaling laws with respect to B-field, voltage and reactor size. The contractor shall investigate the feasibility of a neutron-free fusion power reaction using a polywell WB machine. It is anticipated that improvements in WB confinement, ion energy, and fusion reactivity will be demonstrated in WB8.1. Improvements over the WB8 predictive, computational model are expected, which should yield a better understanding of the WB fusion reaction thus allowing optimization of the WB machine.The fact that they are contemplating work on the pB11 reaction is very encouraging. That fuel is one of the most difficult to burn in a fusion reactor. Which means testing with lesser fuels (or simulated fuels) has gone very well indeed. At 100 milliwatts for a follow on reactor they are starting to get into the power range. If they can get that kind of power with .3 m dia. coils and .8 T fields, then a reactor with 3 m coils and 10 T fields should produce about 2.5 Mega Watts if the scaling laws hold. And just as a little kicker: 3.3.1 The contractor shall develop an enhanced ion drive system that is compatible with Wiffleball 8.1 and projected future wiffleballs. The ion drive system shall be capable of injecting protons (ionized Hydrogen), and ionized Boron 11. The ion drive system shall be capable of generating ions in sufficient quantity to fully fuel the wiffleball fusion machines.If they are going to fuel even a small machine the ion guns are going to have to be capable of multi amp currents - each. Well that is my first cut at digesting the news. If you want to figure out more a look at all the links at Talk Polywell will be helpful. I especially liked this inventory [pdf] of items purchased since about 1999. All in all the new contract has a lot of good news. To sum up: What it means about past work: it went well. You can learn the basics of fusion energy by reading Principles of Fusion Energy: An Introduction to Fusion Energy for Students of Science and Engineering Polywell is a little more complicated. You can learn more about Polywell and its potential at: Bussard's IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained The American Thinker has a good article up with the basics. Why hasn't Polywell Fusion been fully funded by the Obama administration? Cross Posted at Power and Control Welcome Instapundit readers. For something completely different may I suggest Michael Totten On Iran? posted by Simon on 06.16.09 at 09:03 PM
Comments
You morons. We are NOT interested in saving Earth from Big Oil or Big Carbon. We are interested in controlling people. Giving them cheap energy makes that a LOT harder. Hell, we'd be going with fission if we really wanted to solve an energy crisis. CraigZ · June 17, 2009 08:24 AM Jim, Enough of the project is open source so that the work of 20 years could be replicated in a year or two. Me and a few of my friends have gone to great lengths to make sure this technology wouldn't die no matter what. M. Simon · June 17, 2009 09:03 AM VERY promising. It looks like the core scaling assumptions outlined by Bussard in the Valencia paper are holding up. Based on this, isn't it time to do detailed engineering studies on the first-cut implications. QED rockets, etc? Its a shame NASA shut down NIAC; QED rockets are perfect for their phase 1 and phase 2 studies. Duane · June 17, 2009 12:35 PM When I try to get that pdf file, my browser tells me: "www.neco.navy.mil uses an invalid security certificate" I note that going in directly to : What's up with that? I am tempted to tell it to make an exception, but, ..... Tom Billings · June 17, 2009 04:47 PM Tom - I get that too, seems to just be because FF doesn't automatically trust the DoD as a certificate root. Sites like this are fairly "internal" to the military and their contractors, so evidently they didn't bother paying to have it countersigned by thawte or whoever. Bob · June 17, 2009 07:13 PM That's correct. DOD acts as a root certificate signer and does not have their certificates signed by the public ones. ParatrooperJJ · June 18, 2009 07:41 AM DOD has spent billions no the toris. To spend a dime on a Polywell would be admitting they may be wrong Joel · June 30, 2009 12:49 PM Post a comment
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Why hasn't Polywell Fusion been fully funded by the Obama administration?
Because they want to take power from the people, and not just political power.