For All Mankind

A lot of people have been asking me publicly and privately, if the Bussard Fusion Technology is successful, can it be bottled up by special interests? I think the we have an answer from Dr. Richard Nebel who is now running the experiments in New Mexico.

Your concern is something that EMC2 has thought about. The Polywell is what is generally described as a "disruptive technology". Namely, it is a technological surprise that changes everything. A lot of people have/are investing a lot of money in energy technologies. The Polywell is their worst nightmare. Consider for a moment who isn't going to like the Polywell:

1. The fusion people. They've already gone ballistic (but we're not going to go there).
2. The fission people. They're working on a "nuclear renaissance".
3. The solar people.
4. The wind people.
5. Big oil.
6. The gas and coal companies
7. The biofuels people.
8. A few of the environmentalists.

As you can see, we are pretty much an equal opportunity irritant. We are very well aware that any number of people would like to sit on this technology and keep it out of the market. This is one of the primary reasons that Dr. Bussard chose to have this project funded by the Navy rather than privately funded (where we probably would have had a much easier schedule). With the Navy contract, we retain the rights to the intellectual property for commercialization.

Dr. Bussards's desires for this technology were very clear: he wanted it developed and used by the public ASAP. We intend to honor those wishes.

Dr. Nebel, if the latest experiment (WB-7) works out and you read this, I want you to know that if you can use my help I'm good to go. I'm willing to sweep the floors if that is the way you think you can best use me.

Cross Posted at Power and Control

posted by Simon on 04.19.08 at 05:52 PM





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Comments

Hysterical conspiracy theory politics, but where's the beef? Like, what is it, and how does it work

bob burns   ·  April 19, 2008 08:08 PM

Bob,

You could always follow the links to find things out. The first one is highly recommended. Google works well.

Lots of source material here too:

IEC Fusion Technology blog.

I have been following this for a year and a half and am pretty much up to speed. I'm an aerospace engineer by trade. The current experiment going on is a confirmation of work done preparatory to building a full scale prototype.

M. Simon   ·  April 19, 2008 10:12 PM

I would love nothing more than to see this "disruptive technology" succeed!

Keep up the great work!

Eric Scheie   ·  April 20, 2008 08:54 AM

2. The fission people. They're working on a "nuclear renaissance".

I don't know about the rest of my colleagues, but as a fission guy myself working ardently on the nuclear renaissance, I hope that the Polywell Fusion project pans out. Inexpensive and endless source of energy would be a tremendous accomplishment. As far as a career goes, well, I'm reminded of an exchange from The Darfsteller:

"What'll you do if your job gets replaced by a little black box?"

"I dunno. Probably get a job making the little black boxes."

physics geek   ·  April 21, 2008 11:14 AM

geek,

It is the folks with long term capital invested who fight the hardest.

M. Simon   ·  April 21, 2008 04:43 PM

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