May
19
Buzzard’s IEC Fusion Lets Loose A Little Info
May 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
With masterstrokes of enthusiasm, diligence and genuine niceness, M. Simon who runs iecfusiontech.blogspot.com has enticed the best minds that are most knowledgeable about Dr. Robert Bussard’s inertial confinement technique to fuse atoms to participate with him in a forum. With the people like himself, the estimable Tom Ligon , and lately the leader at ECM2, the company that Dr. Bussard set up to continue his work after his passing, Richard Nebel participating, the Talk-Polywell.org forum is the place to be to keep up with developments in the most revolutionary technology of our time.
The current effort in the research is primarily to duplicate the earlier work of Dr. Bussard and to accumulate data that can be tested and replicated. The first news of action with the equipment came out back in January of 2008 with the news that first plasma had been achieved. With little more than a funding mandate to confirm the earlier work and determine the value of further research first plasma simply showed the apparatus does in fact work at low power levels. Mr. Nebel points out that they have a long way to go to get to the power levels that Dr. Bussard had worked to before with the earlier device and the funding dried up.
By early April Mr. Nebel was saying the operation was progressing nearly on schedule with just a few weeks slippage. What is missing is equipment for full power pulsing of the unit and the team was waiting for components. Meanwhile the systems were tested, component by component. They were continuing to build hardware for the integrated tests.
This month saw Tom Ligon re-releasing his article “The World’s Simplest Fusion Reactor Revisited.” Please attend to the request that Tom makes about linking as the article will likely be updated. “Copyright 2007, 2008, by Tom Ligon. This article was first published in the January-February 2008 edition of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Special edition with postscript for iecfusiontech.blogspot.com and fusor.net. This document may be downloaded, printed out, or linked from other sites, but please do not re-post it on other websites, or re-publish it, without the author’s permission. If corrections or updates are needed, I’d like a limited number of copies to track down.” It’s a recommended read. Of note for the nay sayers is that to date some eight high school students have built fusors that produce measurable results and two more getting close. This brings us to the news from early last week.
With so much interest from young and academically oriented engineers, M. Simon offered the idea that Bussard’s basic fusor could be replicated for more study. To which Mr. Nebel offered “One of the things we have been considering is selling a “turnkey” version of the WB-7. In this case we would design, build, license and deliver an operating Polywell, probably on the scale of the present machine. Operator training and tech support would also be part of the deal. The model is to use a plug and play concept where the user could substitute their own parts (electron sources, for instance) in an open architecture system. This is similar to what IBM did with the PC in the early 80s. It would give people who are interested in Polywells a chance to develop their own new patentable concepts and new companies without having to go through the entire learning curve that we have been on for the past several years. This struck us as a way to jumpstart the industry and get a lot of new ideas and people involved in Polywells. These devices could be funded through government grants (we have found a mechanism) or privately. I think we could do a turnkey machine for a ~ $500k-$1000k depending on how many people are interested.”
At this moment, one point is apparent above all. The research is basic in the most fundamental way. It’s a long way either by time or money or combined money saves some time. Nevertheless, it seems the engineering and the hardware development is tracking along as Dr. Bussard’s physics proposed the experiments to yield results. While some will assert it is time to get on with an optimally fueled reactor, the reality is one fine idea, the spreading of the basic kit to research groups, would be one of the best ideas beyond the basic physics. At this moment at such a basic level of research there is a universe of exploration and innovation to come, and the further a field and across the widest spectrum of innovative minds will make for the fastest improvements and increases in efficiency.
For some of the most interesting and informative views the forum comments are the place to be. It’s looking better for Dr. R.W. Bussard’s work to change the world.
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