Focus Fusion Ruggedizing

This is a quick note on the workat focus fusion.  It has become obviousthat the system needs to be way more robust, although this was surely not unexpected.  Initial sizing was likely predetermined by thesheer cost of working with the exotic materials.

Again this is all preludes toworking in the Boron based fuel for the necessary energy levels.  I am also sure components are taking plentyof time to properly fabricate.  As usualit will take months of effort likely spread out to accommodate reasonabledelays.

It remains the most interestingfusion project out there and the one most likely to operate a space drivesystem.

Lawrenceville Plasma Physics ruggedizingresearch nuclear fusion machine

FEBRUARY 04, 2011

Lawrenceville Plasma Physics is ruggedizing their dense plasmafocus fusion machine. 

A thicker tungsten rod will now require a much bigger spark plug andthe widening of the hole in the electrode plates. They are doing this to endmechanical and electrical breakdown of the insulators. They want to press on to45 kilovolts. 

The fourth of eight goals is to increase the charging potential on themachine, by 5 kV steps, up to the full capacity of 45 kV and in the processachieve a peak current of about 2 million amps with deuterium.

Increasing the current (by increasing the voltage is where a lotof performance improvement is expected.

Scaling with increased current, I^5 scaling to 1.4 MA (55 times more power)

Optimization of axial magnetic field (3times more power)

Scaling with increased current, I^4 scaling from 1.4 MA to 2.8 MA (16 timesmore power)

So far LPP has been achieving much faster scaling, almost I^7. 

Changing the fuel to pB11 should enable an increase of 160 times (higherreaction rate at 600 keV, more energy perreaction, and more compression) 

The smaller rod is the old one and the larger is the new rugged rod