Classical Values

WB-D

EMC2 (Polywell Fusion) has updated their site with an image of WB-8 shown above. The Drawing is labeled as "with diagnostics".

And then there is this picture:

Labeled:

WB-D 100MW Polywell Demo Device

Your Contributions Will Help Us Design The WB-D Polywell Device

Send your supporting contributions to:

New Mexico Community Foundation

Contact Energy Matter Conversion Corporation

1202 Parkway Drive Suite A
Santa Fe, NM 87507
Phone: 505-471-2050
Email: Rick at Emc2fusion dot com

There is considerable speculation at Talk Polywell as to what it all means.

And since from time to time there are people reading here who need to be brought up to speed on fusion I'm reposting my usual: 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.

And the best part? We Will Know In Two Years or less.

I'm a big fan of small fusion projects. Especially after hearing what Plasma Physicist and author of Principles of Plasma Physics Dr. Nicholas Krall said, "We spent $15 billion dollars studying tokamaks and what we learned about them is that they are no damn good." And they seem really hard to build even. And who knows, if the Polywell experiments being done by the US Navy are successful the ITER project may just wind up as a big hole in the ground in France.

Update:

Here is the progress report given so far by EMC2:

EMC2 Fusion Development Corporation has been formed as a charitable research and development organization in frontier energy technologies with emphasis on fusion.

Fusion R&D Phase 1 - Validate and extend WB-6 results with WB-7 Device: 1.5 years / $1.8M, Successfully Completed

Fusion R&D Phase 2 - Design, build and test larger scale WB-8 Polywell Device: 2 years / $7M, In Process

Fusion R&D Phase 3 - Design, build and test full scale 100 MW Fusion System: 4 years / $200M, In Design Phase

Successful Phase 3 marks the end of fossil fuels

Good luck and happy fusing to the EMC2 folks and Rick Nebel who is leading the project.

Cross Posted at Power and Control

Comments

Wow. That picture is really cool! Please keep updating!

Eric Scheie · March 17, 2010 11:01 PM

The Polywell people are running a scam.

bob sykes · March 18, 2010 9:11 AM

bob,

I am a friend of Rick Nebel. Tom Ligon (former engineer for Dr. Bussard) is a friend. Nick Krall (plasma physicist) is a correspondent.

I have studied it from an engineering standpoint.

All those folks (and more) think Polywell has merit.

Where do you come by your opinion?

M. Simon · March 18, 2010 10:26 AM

FYI--on the EMC2 website (at the bottom) there is a link for a document titled:'results and final conclusions'

cnn · March 18, 2010 1:57 PM

Successful Phase 3 marks the end of fossil fuels

Well, for mass electrical production, fairly rapidly.

For transport, probably eventually, but not rapidly.

Anonymous · March 18, 2010 2:06 PM

That document refers to Dr. Bussards final experiments on WB-6.

M. Simon · March 18, 2010 2:07 PM

Best of luck to them, but the "we will know in 1.5-2 years" announcement was made 10 months ago, and should be updated. You know what they say: Fusion is and will always be the energy source of the future!

SteveBrooklineMA · March 18, 2010 3:10 PM

Steve,

The "We will know" depends on the results from WB-8. That work is scheduled to be done around April 2011. So the two years number (published in May of 2009) is still on track.

The more optimistic 18 months is still possible but IMO not likely.

M. Simon · March 18, 2010 3:34 PM

Post a comment