An Analysis of Lockheed-Martins' Fusion Effort
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Reactor Potential for Magnetized Target Fusion
TR.TA-A Report ISSN 1102-2051 VETENSKAP OCH ISRN KTH/ALF/--01/2--SE 1ONST KTH-ALF--01-2 KTH Reactor Potential for Magnetized Target Fusion Jon-Erik Dahlin Research and Training programme on CONTROLLED THERMONUCLEAR FUSION AND PLASMA PHYSICS (Association EURATOM/NFR) FUSION PLASMA PHYSICS ALFV N LABORATORY ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SE-100 44 STOCKHOLM SWEDEN PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ALL OF THE MISSING PAGES IN THIS DOCUMENT WERE ORIGINALLY BLANK TRITA-ALF-2001-02 ISRN KTH/ALF/--01/2--SE Reactor Potential for Magnetized Target Fusion J.-E. Dahlin VETENSKAP OCH KONST Stockholm, June 2001 The Alfven Laboratory Division of Fusion Plasma Physics Royal Institute of Technology SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden (Association EURATOM/NFR) Printed by Alfven Laboratory Fusion Plasma Physics Division Royal Institute of Technology SE-100 44 Stockholm Abstract Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) is a possible pathway to thermonuclear fusion different from both magnetic fusion and inertial confinement fusion. An imploding cylindrical metal liner compresses a preheated and magnetized plasma configuration until thermonuclear conditions are achieved. In this report the Magnetized Target Fusion concept is evaluated and a zero-dimensional computer model of the plasma, liner and circuit as a connected system is designed. The results of running this code are that thermonuclear conditions are achieved indeed, but only during a very short time. At peak compression the pressure from the compressed plasma and mag- netic field is so large reversing the liner implosion into an explosion. The time period of liner motion reversal is termed the dwell time and is crucial to the performance of the fusion system. -
Thermonuclear AB-Reactors for Aerospace
1 Article Micro Thermonuclear Reactor after Ct 9 18 06 AIAA-2006-8104 Micro -Thermonuclear AB-Reactors for Aerospace* Alexander Bolonkin C&R, 1310 Avenue R, #F-6, Brooklyn, NY 11229, USA T/F 718-339-4563, [email protected], [email protected], http://Bolonkin.narod.ru Abstract About fifty years ago, scientists conducted R&D of a thermonuclear reactor that promises a true revolution in the energy industry and, especially, in aerospace. Using such a reactor, aircraft could undertake flights of very long distance and for extended periods and that, of course, decreases a significant cost of aerial transportation, allowing the saving of ever-more expensive imported oil-based fuels. (As of mid-2006, the USA’s DoD has a program to make aircraft fuel from domestic natural gas sources.) The temperature and pressure required for any particular fuel to fuse is known as the Lawson criterion L. Lawson criterion relates to plasma production temperature, plasma density and time. The thermonuclear reaction is realised when L > 1014. There are two main methods of nuclear fusion: inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and magnetic confinement fusion (MCF). Existing thermonuclear reactors are very complex, expensive, large, and heavy. They cannot achieve the Lawson criterion. The author offers several innovations that he first suggested publicly early in 1983 for the AB multi- reflex engine, space propulsion, getting energy from plasma, etc. (see: A. Bolonkin, Non-Rocket Space Launch and Flight, Elsevier, London, 2006, Chapters 12, 3A). It is the micro-thermonuclear AB- Reactors. That is new micro-thermonuclear reactor with very small fuel pellet that uses plasma confinement generated by multi-reflection of laser beam or its own magnetic field. -
Article Thermonuclear Bomb 5 7 12
1 Inexpensive Mini Thermonuclear Reactor By Alexander Bolonkin [email protected] New York, April 2012 2 Article Thermonuclear Reactor 1 26 13 Inexpensive Mini Thermonuclear Reactor By Alexander Bolonkin C&R Co., [email protected] Abstract This proposed design for a mini thermonuclear reactor uses a method based upon a series of important innovations. A cumulative explosion presses a capsule with nuclear fuel up to 100 thousands of atmospheres, the explosive electric generator heats the capsule/pellet up to 100 million degrees and a special capsule and a special cover which keeps these pressure and temperature in capsule up to 0.001 sec. which is sufficient for Lawson criteria for ignition of thermonuclear fuel. Major advantages of these reactors/bombs is its very low cost, dimension, weight and easy production, which does not require a complex industry. The mini thermonuclear bomb can be delivered as a shell by conventional gun (from 155 mm), small civil aircraft, boat or even by an individual. The same method may be used for thermonuclear engine for electric energy plants, ships, aircrafts, tracks and rockets. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Key words: Thermonuclear mini bomb, thermonuclear reactor, nuclear energy, nuclear engine, nuclear space propulsion. Introduction It is common knowledge that thermonuclear bombs are extremely powerful but very expensive and difficult to produce as it requires a conventional nuclear bomb for ignition. In stark contrast, the Mini Thermonuclear Bomb is very inexpensive. Moreover, in contrast to conventional dangerous radioactive or neutron bombs which generates enormous power, the Mini Thermonuclear Bomb does not have gamma or neutron radiation which, in effect, makes it a ―clean‖ bomb having only the flash and shock wave of a conventional explosive but much more powerful (from 1 ton of TNT and more, for example 100 tons). -
Cavitation-Induced Fusion: Proof of Concept Vol
1 Fomitchev-Zamilov: Cavitation-Induced Fusion: Proof of Concept Vol. 9 Cavitation-Induced Fusion: Proof of Concept Max I. Fomitchev-Zamilov Quantum Potential Corporation, 200 Innovation Blvd, Suite 254, State College, PA 16803 e-mail: [email protected] Cavitation-induced fusion (also known as bubble fusion or sonofusion) has been a topic of much debate and controversy and is generally (albeit incorrectly) perceived as unworkable. In this paper we present the theoretical foundations of cavitation-induced fusion and summarize the experimental results of the research conducted in the past 20 years. Based on the systematic study of all available data we conclude that the cavitation-induced fusion is feasible, doable, and can be used for commercial power generation. We present the results of our own research and disclose a commercial reactor prototype. threatened), to tenure and promotion issues and academic 1. Introduction misconduct (Krivit, 2011). As a result of the ensuing Nuclear fusion (which powers the sun) is the energy of the “bubblegate” scandal Taleyarkhan’s career was destroyed future: 10 microgram of deuterium is equivalent to a barrel of (Reich, 2009) and CIF research became a taboo. oil. Deuterium is cheap, plentiful and easily extracted from What was forgotten amid the outburst of emotions is that water. Unlike uranium fission in modern nuclear power plants cavitation-induced fusion is a fruitful area of research that must be deuterium fusion does not produce radioactive waste. Yet continued: no less than 7 independent peer-reviewed reports despite 40 years of research and over $20B in government exist demonstrating neutron emissions from collapsing spending (Chu, 2008) on inertial/magnetic confinement cavitation bubbles; even heavily criticized experiments by projects (ICF/MCF) the fusion power remains out of reach: to Taleyarkhan’s group have been successfully repeated (Xu & this date there are no fusion reactors capable of sustained Butt, 2005), (Forringer, Robbins, & Martin, 2006), (Bugg, 2006). -
ITER Aims and Technical Challenges
I and I I - ITER Aims and Technical Challenges Jo Lister CRPP-EPFL Centre de Recherches en Physique des Plasmas Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland Outline of the first 2 talks q A previous lecture series was given by Prof. Ambrogio Fasoli q These introduced fusion and ITER but concentrated on the physics q Today and tomorrow we revisit the basic aims and design of ITER, but try to extract the technical challenges, and more importantly, where these challenges come from Jo Lister, CRPP-EPFL, "ITER Technical Challenges" CERN, May/June 2005 2 Remember why we are doing this ! q Finite oil resource thinking was launched by Hubbert in 1956 when he predicted US oil production would peak around 1970 - no-one listened q It did - he was right - US production was allowed at 100% capacity q Now domestic production is decreasing q Idem for world oil, idem for gas Provide a long term energy supply Jo Lister, CRPP-EPFL, "ITER Technical Challenges" CERN, May/June 2005 3 We don’t have a solution for demand exceeding production ! q Swenson’s Law says: “ To avoid deprivation resulting from the exhaustion of non-renewable resources, humanity must employ conservation and renewable resource substitutes sufficient to match depletion.” q One reason no-one important wants to know is that oil depletion might (?) lead to war, famine, plague…. Match supply and demand Jo Lister, CRPP-EPFL, "ITER Technical Challenges" CERN, May/June 2005 4 Fusion physics basics - Nuclear ?? q Where does fusion energy come from ? • The nucleus, B/A is the energy “stored” -
Cold Fusion Again 1 Introduction
Prespacetime Journal j February 2016 j Volume 7 j Issue 2 j pp. 379-396 379 Pitk¨anen,M., Cold Fusion Again Exploration Cold Fusion Again Matti Pitk¨anen 1 Abstract During years I have developed two models of cold fusion and in this article these models are combined together. The basic idea of TGD based model of cold is that cold fusion occurs in two steps. First dark nuclei (large heff = n × h) with much lower binding energy than ordinary nuclei are formed at magnetic flux tubes possibly carrying monopole flux. These nuclei can leak out the system along magnetic flux tubes. Under some circumstances these dark nuclei can transform to ordinary nuclei and give rise to detectable fusion products. An essential additional condition is that the dark protons can decay to neutrons rapidly enough by exchanges of dark weak bosons effectively massless below atomic length scale. Also beta decays in which dark W boson decays to dark electron and neutrino can be considered. This allows to overcome the Coulomb wall and explains why final state nuclei are stable and the decay to ordinary nuclei does not yield only protons. Thus it seems that this model combined with the TGD variant of Widom-Larsen model could explain nicely the existing data. In this chapter I will describe the steps leading to the TGD inspired model for cold fusion combining the earlier TGD variant of Widom-Larsen modelwith the model inspired by the TGD inspired model of Pollack's fourth phase of water using as input data findings from laser pulse induced cold fusion discovered by Leif Holmlid and collaborators. -
Disputed Inquiry Clears Bubble-Fusion Engineer
NEWS NATURE|Vol 445|15 February 2007 Disputed inquiry clears bubble-fusion engineer An inquiry has exonerated nuclear engineer several researchers worried that Taleyarkhan’s Rusi Taleyarkhan of misconduct with respect work may be fraudulent, and he wrote to Purdue to allegations made internally at Purdue Uni- about his concerns in June 2006. These include versity in West Lafayette, Indiana, officials the apparent duplication of data between announced last week. But the announcement reports of supposedly independent experi- may raise more questions than it answers: ments4 (first raised by Nature), and a report5 researchers in the field have criticized the uni- that the spectrum of neutrons that Taleyarkhan versity for failing to say whether the inquiry claims to have detected from bubble fusion considered their concerns that the work may exactly matches that of a standard radioactive be fraudulent. source called californium. Taleyarkhan has Taleyarkhan claims to be able to produce since replied that when he measures neutrons fusion by collapsing bubbles in deuterated emitted by californium in his lab, he finds some- liquids. His work promised to improve pros- thing quite unlike what he sees from his fusion pects for developing a clean source of energy, experiments6. But a recent preprint points out but independent scientists have not been able that Taleyarkhan omitted some of the original to replicate the result. The work had been sub- spectral data in his reply, and that the full data ject to several internal allegations of miscon- set still looks like californium7. duct, including the fact that Taleyarkhan cited The university never responded to Suslick’s a paper by his student and postdoc as “inde- concerns. -
1 Looking Back at Half a Century of Fusion Research Association Euratom-CEA, Centre De
Looking Back at Half a Century of Fusion Research P. STOTT Association Euratom-CEA, Centre de Cadarache, 13108 Saint Paul lez Durance, France. This article gives a short overview of the origins of nuclear fusion and of its development as a potential source of terrestrial energy. 1 Introduction A hundred years ago, at the dawn of the twentieth century, physicists did not understand the source of the Sun‘s energy. Although classical physics had made major advances during the nineteenth century and many people thought that there was little of the physical sciences left to be discovered, they could not explain how the Sun could continue to radiate energy, apparently indefinitely. The law of energy conservation required that there must be an internal energy source equal to that radiated from the Sun‘s surface but the only substantial sources of energy known at that time were wood or coal. The mass of the Sun and the rate at which it radiated energy were known and it was easy to show that if the Sun had started off as a solid lump of coal it would have burnt out in a few thousand years. It was clear that this was much too shortœœthe Sun had to be older than the Earth and, although there was much controversy about the age of the Earth, it was clear that it had to be older than a few thousand years. The realization that the source of energy in the Sun and stars is due to nuclear fusion followed three main steps in the development of science. -
Accelerating Low-Cost Plasma Heating and Assembly – ALPHA
Accelerating Low-Cost Plasma Heating and Assembly – ALPHA PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS California Institute of Technology – Pasadena, CA Prototype Tools to Establish the Viability of the Adiabatic Heating and Compression Mechanisms Required for Magnetized Target Fusion - $800,000 Caltech, in coordination with Los Alamos National Laboratory, will investigate collisions of plasma jets and targets over a wide range of parameters to characterize the scaling of adiabatic heating and compression of liner-driven magnetized target fusion plasmas. The team will propel fast magnetized plasma jets into stationary heavy gases or metal walls. The resulting collision is equivalent to a fast heavy gas or metal liner impacting a stationary magnetized target in a shifted reference frame and allows the non-destructive and rapid investigation of physical phenomena and scaling laws governing the degree of adiabaticity of liner implosions. This study will provide critical information on the interactions and limitations for a variety of possible driver and plasma target combinations being developed across the ALPHA program portfolio. Helion Energy, Inc. – Redmond, WA Staged Magnetic Compression of FRC Targets to Fusion Conditions- $3,971,264 Helion Energy, Inc. will investigate staged magnetic compression of field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas, building on past successes to develop a prototype that can attain higher temperatures and fuel density than previously possible. The team will use these results to assess the viability of scaling to a power reactor, which if successful would offer the benefits of simple linear geometry, attractive scaling, and compatibility with modern pulsed power electronics. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – Berkeley, CA MEMS Based Ion Beam Drivers for Magnetized Target Fusion- $2,200,000 Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (LBNL), in close collaboration with Cornell University, will develop a scalable ion beam driver based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. -
Yol 2 7 Ns 1 0 Barc/1995/P/005 O O 5 Government of India 6 Atomic Energy Commission
TRN-IN9600313 S BARC/i995)!>/005 CO I> NUCLEAR PHYSICS DIVISION BIENNIAL REPORT 1993-1994 Edited by K. Kumar and S. K. Kataria 1995 YOL 2 7 NS 1 0 BARC/1995/P/005 O O 5 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 6 ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION U 0! NUCLEAR PHYSICS DIVISION BIENNIAL REPORT 1993-1994 Edited by: K. Kumar and S.K. Kataria Nuclear Physics Division BHABHA ATOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE BOMBAY, INDIA 1995 BARC/1993/P/003 BIBLIOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION SHEET FOR TECHNICAL REPORT (as p»r IS t 9400 - 1980) 01 Security classification t Unclassified 02 Distribution : External 03 Report status t New 04 Series 3 BARC External 03 Report type : Progress Report 06 Report No. : BARC/1995/P/005 07 Part No. or Volume No. t 08 Contract No. s 10 Title and subtitle i Nuclear Physics Division biennial report 1993-1994 11 Collation t 93 p., figs., tabs. 13 Project No. : 2O Personal author (s) i K. Kumar; S.K. Kataria (eds.) 21 Affiliation of author (s) i Nuclear Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay 22 Corporate author(s) i Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay-400 083 23 Originating unit s Nuclear Physics Division, BARC, Bombay 24 Sponsor(s) Name i Department of Atomic Energy Type i Government 30 Date of submission s August 1993 31 Publication/Issue date September 1995 ccntd...(ii> (ii) 40 Publisher/Distributor i Head, Library and Information Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay 42 Form of distribution i Hard Copy 90 Language of text i English 91 Language of summary i English 92 No. -
Nuclear Fusion Power – an Overview of History, Present and Future
International Journal of Advanced Network, Monitoring and Controls Volume 04, No.04, 2019 Nuclear Fusion Power – An Overview of History, Present and Future Stewart C. Prager Department of Physics University of Wisconsin – Madison Madison, WI 53706, USA E-mail: [email protected] Summary—Fusion power offers the prospect of an allowing the nuclei to fuse together. Such conditions almost inexhaustible source of energy for future can occur when the temperature increases, causing the generations, but it also presents so far insurmountable ions to move faster and eventually reach speeds high engineering challenges. The fundamental challenge is to enough to bring the ions close enough together. The achieve a rate of heat emitted by a fusion plasma that nuclei can then fuse, causing a release of energy. exceeds the rate of energy injected into the plasma. The main hope is centered on tokamak reactors and II. FUSION TECHNOLOGY stellarators which confine deuterium-tritium plasma In the Sun, massive gravitational forces create the magnetically. right conditions for fusion, but on Earth they are much Keywords-Fusion Energy; Hydrogen Power; Nuclear Fusion harder to achieve. Fusion fuel – different isotopes of hydrogen – must be heated to extreme temperatures of I. INTRODUCTION the order of 50 million degrees Celsius, and must be Today, many countries take part in fusion research kept stable under intense pressure, hence dense enough to some extent, led by the European Union, the USA, and confined for long enough to allow the nuclei to Russia and Japan, with vigorous programs also fuse. The aim of the controlled fusion research underway in China, Brazil, Canada, and Korea. -
Compact Fusion Reactors
Compact fusion reactors Tomas Lind´en Helsinki Institute of Physics 26.03.2015 Fusion research is currently to a large extent focused on tokamak (ITER) and inertial confinement (NIF) research. In addition to these large international or national efforts there are private companies performing fusion research using much smaller devices than ITER or NIF. The attempt to achieve fusion energy production through relatively small and compact devices compared to tokamaks decreases the costs and building time of the reactors and this has allowed some private companies to enter the field, like EMC2, General Fusion, Helion Energy, Lockheed Martin and LPP Fusion. Some of these companies are trying to demonstrate net energy production within the next few years. If they are successful their next step is to attempt to commercialize their technology. In this presentation an overview of compact fusion reactor concepts is given. CERN Colloquium 26th of March 2015 Tomas Lind´en (HIP) Compact fusion reactors 26.03.2015 1 / 37 Contents Contents 1 Introduction 2 Funding of fusion research 3 Basics of fusion 4 The Polywell reactor 5 Lockheed Martin CFR 6 Dense plasma focus 7 MTF 8 Other fusion concepts or companies 9 Summary Tomas Lind´en (HIP) Compact fusion reactors 26.03.2015 2 / 37 Introduction Introduction Climate disruption ! ! Pollution ! ! ! Extinctions Ecosystem Transformation Population growth and consumption There is no silver bullet to solve these issues, but energy production is "#$%&'$($#!)*&+%&+,+!*&!! central to many of these issues. -.$&'.$&$&/!0,1.&$'23+! Economically practical fusion power 4$(%!",55*6'!"2+'%1+!$&! could contribute significantly to meet +' '7%!89 !)%&',62! the future increased energy :&(*61.'$*&!(*6!;*<$#2!-.=%6+! production demands in a sustainable way.