College students in Peninsula College build fusion reactor

[FogerRox]

College students in Peninsula College, Port Angeles, Washington have built a small IEC nuclear fusion device. An IEC fusion reactor is the predecessor to the Polywell fusion reactor being tested in Santa Fe NM.http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/6/22434/50410/477/506007

Thats right, college kids made fusion.

For those of you who haven't been following the Polywell story, Polywell is being funding by the US Navy, to the measly tune of 1.8 million dollars. I believe that Polywell fusion is the short road to fusion power that can provide cheap abundant power on a scale to replace oil.

Those Tokamak people have been working on magnetic torus's since 1938, and still dont have a demonstration unit, ITER will not be proof of concept.

IEC fusion, or Polywell fusion is simple and elegant. Fusion occurs in a sphere (the sun) not in a torus (donut). Its simple enough that college students started last December to build an IEC fusion reactor. Their 1st test run was June 21st, 2nd run June 22nd.

Jesus Christ, we have got to get this Polywell project the funding to continue. This is no 30 year project, we will know in 3 to 5 years if Polywell will work. For 200 million we need to know. Please write oyour congress folk a letter like this one:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/17/225034/881/107/433145

College kids can make fusion. The Japanese know about it, as well as India & China. WTF are we waiting for ?

Here are the students:


Here is the reactor, yes its small, probably under 1 ft high.

Here is the inside view of the plasma:



For the latest ploywell news we all hang out here:

http://www.talk-polywell.org

[baldguy]

1. And now Dick Cheney will have them killed.

[newmajority]

15. Cheney already hates Port Angeles

Up there, they know how to catch terrorists without starting a war.

[FogerRox]

22. :-_)

[uppityperson]

25. Chase them down and grab them. Woohoo for Peninsula College!

This is very cool. Sent it off to local news paper as there was nothing there about it. A couple more links:
http://www.pc.ctc.edu/news/event_detail.aspx?id=989
http://www.physshortbus.net/howitcametogether
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2008/06/students-achieve-fusion.html

[frog92969]

2. Is fusion the form that creates no waste?

[FogerRox]

5. I think they used Helium fuel, All fusion produces waste

Depends on the fuel one uses, DD or DT fuel is real hot, Proton Boron fuel is relatively cool, the desirable fuel.

[frog92969]

6. Thanks

I know absolutely nothing about this, I thought it was nuclear.

[FogerRox]

8. Its nuclear fusion, not nuclear fission

So yes its nuclear, but fusion can be far cleaner and hopefully nearly replace oil by 2050, and power space craft as we colonize the solar system.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jmp1cg3-WDY&feature=related

Saturn in 76 days

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/12/171119/055/665/333938

[frog92969]

14. Oh ok, I was on the right page

This is really good news then.

I remember hearing high hopes for this theory for a long time now.
If what I've heard is true this could be a real solution.

[FogerRox]

19. Mars in 33 days, Saturn orbit in 76 days.

[SpiralHawk]

18. "The really big troubles will start when they dig into the secrets of the Sun."

"That is what the old teachings say."

- The late Yehwenode, Grandmother Twylah Nitsch, Wolf Clan, Seneca Nation

[provis99]

10. fusion reactors produce a waste product: water

I guess water isn't a bad waste product.

[Tesha]

17. No, fuel cells produce water. Fusion reactors typically produce Helium. And "thermal neutrons". (NT)

[FogerRox]

20. You are correct, PB11 fusion makes IIRC 3 He,

Something like this. Or not quite like this:

[PerfectSage]

7. Did you know all the atoms in your body are waste created by a sun?

No waste.

[FogerRox]

9. Yes I knew that.

But what if I am already wasted... ?

[HowHasItComeToThis]

3. NUTHIN NEU

SEE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU2mwrxRQyA
OR SEE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhZF66C1Dc&feature=related

BROUGHT TO YOU BY http://www.youtube.com/user/yebbacom


DROP ME A MESSAGE

[FogerRox]

4. Nice of you to spam my thread with links that have nothing to do with this issue.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Time for Woodstock again...

Woodstock
Written by Joni Mitchell, performed by
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, 'Tell where are you going?'
This he told me
Said, 'I¹m going down to Yasgur's Farm,
Gonna join in a rock and roll band.
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free.'
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
'Well, then can I walk beside you?
I have come to lose the smog,
And I feel like I'm a cog in something turning.
And maybe it's the time of year,
Yes and maybe it's the time of man.
And I don't know who I am,
But life is for learning.'
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon.
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon.
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration.
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We caught in the devil¹s bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

[cascadiance]

12. Dr. Brussard's fusion project in New Mexico is still going on despite his recent death!

As the DailyKos article mentions here, Dr. Brussard just recently passed away of cancer. Here's an update that notes that his past colleagues reunited to carry on his project there in New Mexico with some newer funding.

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2007/12/bussard_fusion.html

Michael Wray, a very good friend of mine here recently in San Diego, moved back to New Mexico to help take over the project now with Mr. Brussard gone. It may be interesting to both DU and Daily Kos audiences here to note that, had not Mr. Brussard had this unfortunate bout of cancer and was still heading up the project there, there would have been a very good chance that Michael Wray today might have been our nominated Democratic candidate for congress in the 50th district here against Brian Bilbray!

We all were very excited when he announced, including Calitics, who were wanting to help him a lot at the time, before he made his big decision to help carry on Dr. Brussard's work. I'm really hoping that either this project mentioned here by the OP or Michael Wray's project yields something. It could really help us all in the future if it does!

http://www.calitics.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3038

It's always good to know that not only do we have intelligent minds working on these projects, but those with great democratic values like us too!

[Selatius]

13. Pretty soon, they will be turning out MR. FUSION home energy reactors from Back to the Future.

Like the one that powered the flux capacitor on the DeLorean.

[FogerRox]

21. Mars in 33 days, Saturn in 76.

[rucky]

16. Where's Val Kilmer in that picture?

[file83]

23. Bonus points for Real Genius!

[WCGreen]

24. OMG, the kids look like America...

Talk about Fussion.