Alternative Energy - the real deal
Very cool news from Dr. Richard Nebel at
Next Big Future:
Verdict Positive for Inertial Electrostatic Fusion
Information on the Inertial Electrostatic Fusion project by EMC2 Fusion Inc which is carrying on the work of the late Robert Bussard
Alan Boyle reports that the review of the WB7 experiment is done and the verdict is positive.The team has turned in its final report, and it's been double-checked by a peer-review panel, Dr Nebel [research team lead] 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 [this also should mean a replication of the 100,000 times better result that Bussard had with the WB6 prototype], 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.
This is awesome news as Fusion has been the holy grail of alternative energy. There is a lot of big money being dumped into devices which never really pan out and here, we have this scientific outlier that is performing really well.
Here is the website for
EMC2Fusion
Here is the website for the
article that was quoted -- a great read.
There is quite an active group of fusioneers and they hang out here:
Talk Polywell
M. Simon keeps track of developments over at the
IEC Fusion Technology blog.
Posted by DaveH at December 17, 2008 6:34 PM