WB-7 "first plasma"

[OKIsItJustMe]

How did I miss this?

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/09/566532.aspx

STRANGE SCIENCE TAKES TIME

Posted: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 8:30 PM by Alan Boyle

...

Low-cost fusion power

Every time I write about the quest to develop a nuclear fusion reactor, I'm reminded that the $13 billion international ITER project in France is not the only game in town. Over the past year or so, there's been a lot of buzz on the Internet about under-the-radar research into what some believe could be a low-cost fusion technology. The technology, known as inertial electrostatic confinement or Polywell fusion, was championed by physicist Robert Bussard - who passed away in October after a long battle with cancer.

Bussard's mantle has been picked up by a small team led by Richard Nebel, who has taken a leave from Los Alamos National Laboratory to head up Bussard's EMC2 Fusion Development Corp. Backed by a Navy contract, Nebel's five-person team is trying to pick up the technology where Bussard left it.

...

EMC2 Fusion has built an upgraded model of Bussard's last experimental plasma containment device, which was known as WB-6. (The WB stands for Wiffle Ball, a whimsical reference to the structure of the device.) "We got first plasma yesterday," Nebel said - but he and his colleagues in Santa Fe, N.M., still have a long way to get the WB-7 experiment up to the power levels Bussard was working with.

...

The initial analysis showed that Bussard's data on energy yields were consistent with expectations, Nebel said.

...

More at the link.

[Mythsaje]

1. Bussard is a big name...

Following in his footsteps is a good path to take.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Thanks for keeping up with this, and for new links. nt

[TheWraith]

3. I just heard about this today myself.

Good stuff. I hope they get the funding to build the full-scale demonstration reactor.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Presumably, if they can reproduce his results

Money will follow to go for a full-scale unit.

[Greyskye]

5. Hook that puppy up to a Bussard Ramjet

[hunter]

6. If they get these things to work...

... especially in a form that produces high voltage direct current directly from the fusion reaction, then the landscape of the future changes quite radically.

Maybe this time we won't waste the opportunity the way we did with fossil fuels.

[GliderGuider]

7. "the landscape of the future changes quite radically"

It sure will! I am still going to miss the fish and all the other animals, though. Imagine the extinctions we'll be able to complete with unlimited power!!!. Pretty soon it will be just us living here, as God presumably intended.

[hunter]

8. Yep, we'll probably turn the entire biomass of the planet into human meat.

Mr. Chambers...Mr. Chambers, the first page is just a collection of English words with their own translation. But the rest of the book...the rest of the book — It's a cookbook!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man