What Next For Polywell Fusion?

Dr. Bussard thought that a full scale net energy Polywell Fusion program could be done for $200 million. What could be done to advance the knowledge base that wouldn't require that kind of commitment?

I have been giving some thought to what the next step in the Polywell Fusion experiments might be. Here is what I have so far:

I think a continuous operation experiment (LN2 cooled Cu magnet coils described at WB-7x Design) could reach .45 T for about $20 million. Most of that going into power supplies. That is a rough estimate: +/- 5 million is probably 1 sigma.

If I was begging that is one place to start.

Or maybe forget the big power supplies and go for a pulsed small superconducting model. If a lot of neutrons (1E12/sq cm Second) were not generated (or only generated in pulses) MgB would be a good candidate for the coil material if the coils were totally custom.

Heck it might be good just to buy an MRI machine for the coils. An MRI can be had for about $1 million. If you can get just the coils they might only be $200K. A WB machine built like that could be done for probably $5 to $7 million. If it shows good pulsed results pony up for the power supplies. And start thinking about a 100 MW machine.

Why hasn't Polywell Fusion been funded by the Obama administration?

WB-6 Results Confirmed - Continuous Operation The Next Step

Alan Boyle at Cosmic Log announces the results of the WB-7 Bussard Fusion Reactor (BFR) experiments. And the results? No show stoppers so far.

An EMC2 team headed by Los Alamos researcher Richard Nebel (who's on leave from his federal lab job) picked up the baton from Bussard and tried to duplicate the results. The team has turned in its final report, and it's been double-checked by a peer-review panel, Nebel told me today. Although he couldn't go into the details, he said the verdict was positive.

"There's nothing in there that suggests this will not work," Nebel said. "That's a very different statement from saying that it will work."

By and large, the EMC2 results fit Bussard's theoretical predictions, Nebel said. That could mean Polywell fusion would actually lead to a power-generating reaction. But based on the 10-month, shoestring-budget experiment, the team can't rule out the possibility that a different phenomenon is causing the observed effects.

"If you want to say something absolutely, you have to say there's no other explanation," Nebel said. The review board agreed with that conservative assessment, he said.

The good news, from Nebel's standpoint, is that the WB-7 experiment hasn't ruled out the possibility that Polywell fusion could actually serve as a low-cost, long-term energy solution. "If this thing was absolutely dead in the water, we would have found out," he said.

If Polywell pans out, nuclear fusion could be done more cheaply and more safely than it could ever be done in a tokamak or a laser blaster. The process might be able to produce power without throwing off loads of radioactive byproducts. It might even use helium-3 mined from the moon. "We don't want to oversell this," Nebel said, "but this is pretty interesting stuff, and if it works, it's huge."

The next step in my opinion should be a continuously operating version about the size of WB-7. A device I used to call WB-7x and will probably be called WB-8.

Here are some links to what I think a liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooled magnet coil WB-8 (WB-7x) should look like.

Design Issues including laboratory equipment.
Reactor Vessel Requirements.
LN2 Storage
Magnet Power Supplies
Reactor Building And Reactor Controls
Power Supplies Update #1
Reactor Building Sketches
Electron Guns
Lab Tools
Other Instrumentation - Mass Spectrometer
Research Speed
PID Loops And Leak Valves
Orifice Sizing for leak valves.
Thinking About Control
Ionization Pressure Gauges
Detectors
Turbo Pump Ratings
Gas Valve Design
Data Collection
Vacuum Pumping
Transimpedance Amplifiers
The First Wall Problem
WB-6 Shopping List
LC POPS
Standardizing Fusion Test Reactors
Gauging With Intent
CAN Bus And System Control
Magnetic Field Measurement

For those of you not up to speed on the basics may I suggest:
Easy Low Cost No Radiation Fusion
The World's Simplest Fusion Reactor Revisited

And for those of you who would like to join in on the research at a very modest cost may I suggest Starting A Fusion Program In Your Home Town. There is a lot that can be learned from these very simple devices and some simple instrumentation. There is so much we don't know yet.

H/T Instapundit

WB7x Design Issues

Here is my prelim list which gives kind of a broad outline of some of the design issues for WB-7x. This is a strictly first pass effort and is as of yet no where near exhaustive. If you have comments post them.

Power supplies:

Three Alternative Grid supplies
Grid Power 0 - 70KV ~10V steps Capable of modulation @ 10KHz (+/- 5KVpk) for power control 25A continuous. 50A for 3 seconds at reduced or zero modulation due to core saturation (if transformer modulation is used).

Grid Power 0 - 35KV ~5V steps Capable of modulation @ 10KHz (+/- 5KVpk) for reactor power control. 15A continuous. 30A for 3 seconds at reduced or zero modulation due to core saturation (if transformer modulation is used).

Grid Power 0 - 17.5KV ~2.5V steps Capable of modulation @ 10KHz (+/- 2.5KVpk) for reactor power control. 6A continuous. 12A for 3 seconds at reduced or zero modulation due to core saturation (if transformer modulation is used).

PID control designed to keep the Modulation Transformer (if used) unsaturated. Or can be operated open loop.

Ripple less than 100 V at operating current. (that is going to be tough except at high frequencies). Ripple is bad because it spreads the energy.

==========

Magnet power Isolated from Ground to 100 KV
Vacuum Pump Power
Electron gun filament supplies
Electron gun power supplies
Electron gun grid control
24 VDC isolated to 100 KV for the high power control bus rqmts. 1 KW (could be less)
120/240VAC 60Hz 10 KW .6 PF isolated to 100 KV for misc. reactor rqmts

Reaction Control Points:
Coil current
Magnetic Grid Voltage
D-D pressure (will be used to control H in pB11 reaction)
D-D valving (will be used to control H in pB11 reaction)
Vacuum Pump power control
B11 injection control
Electron gun controls

Instruments:
Residual Gas Analyzer
Data Collection and control computer
Coil outlet temperatures
Coil LN2 manifold temperature
Coil LN2 flow rates
Coil current
Laser diagnostics
Neutron counters
Gama counters
Radiation survey instruments
Health physics

Calibration/Quality control materials/data:
Lab Clock for event synchronization

Test procedures:
Item qualifications
System Quals
Reactor Tests

Reactor Systems:
Magnet System
Vacuum Systems
Grid Voltage
HV Safety
LN2 Safety
Coil Energy Safety

Control Bus Issues
Reaction time
Radiation hardness
I like CAN bus for control however, I'm open to suggestions.
No wireless. No crash buses i.e. Ethernet (except for data collection).
Stuff that has to fail safe will be on CAN.

Labratory Procedures
Health Physics
First Aid
Administrative
Scheduling

Labratory Infrastructure
Shop Air
Chilled Water

Update: 28 June 007 2031z
Labratory Infrastructure added
Update: 30 June 007 0536z
Electron gun stuff added