[Dean's World] Dave Price: Is This A Cheap, Workable Fusion Reactor Design?

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dave Price:
Is This A Cheap, Workable Fusion Reactor Design?
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1178563200.shtml


   Google is [1]wondering if Robert Bussard (whose [2]name is well-known
   to sci-fi fans) has a viable and inexpensive design for a fusion
   reactor in his [3]Polywell fusor.
   Bussard argues that current tokamak designs based on thermal
   triggering of fusion (such as the massive $10B [4]ITER project) are
   probably never going to be economically viable, because confining the
   plasma is so incredibly difficult, physics dictates that such reactors
   have to be huge to be efficient, and neutron escape means such designs
   will always be dangerous and difficult to maintain. But confining
   electrons is much easier than confining ions, as electrons are much
   lighter, so a working electrostatic confinement fusion reactor would
   be much smaller and much cheaper.
   It's [5]long been known you can create very small amounts of fusion
   with an electrostatic confinment device (in fact, you can [6]make a
   simple IEC reactor for a few hundred bucks), but Bussard's project
   marks the first time anyone has been able to create a gridless device
   design that produces a [7]magnetic field with electron losses low
   enough to produce fusion energy that, scaled into a larger version,
   might make a viable power plant. Unfortunately, funding was cut in
   2006 (the lab's equipment now sits at [8]SpaceShipOne engine maker
   [9]SpaceDev), but Bussard believes the WB-6 model proved the concept
   works, and that he could build two small prototypes for another $5M,
   that could then be scaled up to working power plants.
   Bussard claims the physics problems are solved and only the
   engineering issues remain to be worked out, at an estimated cost of
   about $150 - $200M and a time frame of 5 years. That's expensive, but
   peanuts compared to the 50 year, $10-25 billion time frame to a
   working thermal fusion reactor -- and the implications if the device
   works are nothing short of staggering: our dependence on Mideast oil
   for energy would quickly evaporate, energy prices would fall
   precipitously, space travel would become orders of magnitude cheaper.
   At the very least, the results so far seem to merit funding Bussard's
   plans for a WB-7 and WB-8, which would further prove out the concept
   and pave the way for a working full-size model, at a cost of about $5M
   over one year.
   ([10]Previous blogging on this subject by Mark Simon at Power and
   Control; more links [11]here, and a Yahoo group dedicated to IEC
   fusion is [12]here)

References

   1. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet
   3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell
   4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER
   5. http://fusor.net/newbie/files/Ligon-QED-IE.pdf
   6. http://www.belljar.net/634fusor.pdf
   7. http://www.mare.ee/indrek/ephi/polywell_cube_bfield_log.png
   8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceshipone
   9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacedev
  10. http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2007/04/good-news-fusion-project-funded.html
  11. http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/
  12. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/IEC_Fusion/