Fusion Power Thread

[scalziand]

LENR "Cold Fusion" nano-magnetism phenomenon details to be revealed December 7th in NYC

November 14, 2011 Chris Houts

Based upon evidence verified by our network of scientific leaders, as well as a definitive explanation of the “mystery” behind how and why LENR works; we are announcing the credibility and feasibility of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction, often incorrectly labeled ”Cold Fusion.”



Brian Ahern received his PhD in material science from MIT, holds 26 patents and was a senior scientist for 17 years in research and development at USAF Rome Lab at Hanscom Air Force Base. Ahern was the U.S. Air Force’s expert on nano-materials. Ahern has discovered the LENR phenomenon is occurring on the nanoscale and involves a formerly misunderstood and rarely explored attribute of nano-magnetism.

Apparently, energy localization at the nano-scale circumvents the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Nature evolved to take advantage of these energy exchange mechanisms available only at this size scale (which is why ordered structures can be created from chaos, such as after the big bang.) This phenomenon was identified in 1996 as Oscillons in relation to Chaos Theory, but has never been clearly understood until now.

Ahern states ” In 1995 we made a major and fundamental discovery regarding nano-material properties. This almost completely unknown to most technologists. All materials processed within certain tolerances experience very different vibrational modes than all other aggregations of matter. IT PROVIDES A CONCISE EXPLANATION FOR THE BIOENERGETICS OBSERVED IN ALL ASPECTS OF NATURE.”

Brian explained this to Akito Takahashi working to replicate the LENR experiments of Yashiaki Arata in early 2009 and he succeeded immediately. Ahern has been funded for 2.5 years to replicate Arata and then push on towards Piantelli. Ahern has also been guiding George Miley’s group at UIUC on this nanotechnology, and the group seems to be enjoying a great deal of success in the month on October.

It also appears that the phenomenon may account for and explains a persistent mystery regarding the unification of physics.

Ahern states “In the last 8 weeks I have been astounded by a superior nanotechnology that will capture the imagination of even the greatest foes of LENR. I believe all of LENR is just a new and unanticipated form of nanomagnetism.” Citi5′ Flash Summit titled Attention America: Clean Tech will fix the Economy will be integrating Ahern’s research, as well as providing a platform for leaders and innovators of LENR to present their findings. Please contact us at info@citi5.org with any questions regarding attending the event or speaker suggestions.

http://citi5.org/launch/?p=1826

[scalziand]

The Chan Formula


Note the following apparatus:

· 10" X 10" X 10" soldered seam copper box, open at top.

· 4" Styrofoam insulation on sides and bottom. Styrofoam cover for top.

· 7 6" lengths of 1/4 " copper tube soldered to bottom, centered to provide platform.

· 4" diameter by 6" long glass pipe created by cutting glass bottle.

· #24 gauge winding around this and placement on stand completes the apparatus. The windings are connected to an RFG with a low range and pulse mode.

· The box is filled to 8 " with mineral oil. A thermal couple is placed in the oil outside the core. Outside, a small oil pump with 1/4 " copper tubes leading into the box circulates the oil A fan cooled radiator is attached in series to provide heat dissipation and an adjustable valve allows temperature control.

· The energy capsules which I place inside of the coil consist of 5 " lengths of 1/4 " copper tube with the bottom pressed and then spot welded closed.

Noting that excessive copper and iron surprise showed up in the Swedish analysis I stocked powders of both with varies properties.



To eliminate need for hydrogen gas I stocked a number of metal hydride powders. I also availed myself of nickel powders, nickel plated copper powders, hydrides of nickel and copper and Raney nickel.

Manipulations are all done is a glove box whose propane atmosphere is constantly swept by a bleed from a small barbecue rank.

· Using a typical mix of Ni, Ni-Cu, Fe, MgH2 powders, a 2 gram sample is placed in a capsule.

· The top is pinched shut with a vise and then spot welded to a tight seal.

A useful reference is http://xuzhounano.en.made-in-china.c...-28NP-HW-.html where nanomagnetic activation is noted.

Here is a brief from a vender's site:

"2. High efficiency electrode material, the nickel has small particle size, easy to disperse and with high specific surface, high catalytic activity and good in conductivity.

If with proper process, it can make the electrode with huge superficial area, greatly improve the efficiency of electric discharge, which can replace the platinum powder use as the fuel-cell catalyst and largely reduce the cost.

3. The nickel nanopowder has very strong electromagnetic wave absorption capability, which can use in the military field of stealth.

4. High-efficiency ignition dope, add the nickel nanopowder to the solid propellant of the rocket can greatly increase the heat and combustion efficiency of the fuel and improves the combustion stability.".

I have reached self sustained fusion at 200 C for days. If anyone duplicates my success, please communicate with me for possible cooperative venture. I have applied for a patent on this some time ago. I am proceeding to place a boiler is series with the oil line to power a small steam engine created from a compressed air engine kit using a basic gasoline engine.

[scalziand]

FoFu-1’s fusion yield consistency improves six-fold

November 29, 2011 by Derek Shannon

FF-1’s repeatability improves six-fold, with fusion yield staying within 3%

FF-1 has taken a long step toward demonstrating the level of repeatable firing needed for a fusion generator. On November 2, FF-1 fired five shots in a row, under the same conditions, with fusion yield varying by only plus or minus 2.6% from an average of 0.9x1011 neutrons. While dense plasma focus (DPF) devices preceding FF-1 have had a reputation for large shot-to-shot variability, a fusion generator (as well as most other applications) requires repeatable functioning. In May 2011, LPP reported that our research team had succeeded in stabilizing FF-1’s output to within a range of plus or minus 15%. The latest, tighter stability of function represents a six-fold improvement over the May results and achieves approximately the range of reliability that would be required in a generator pulsing many times per second.

The greater repeatability, we believe, is due to our tighter control of asymmetries in the device, including the centering of the electrodes (see more below). But the axial field coil (AFC), a magnetic coil which imposes a small field along the axis, probably contributes as well. The coil’s field of only 2 gauss, just 6 times the earth’s magnetic field in the vertical direction, imparts spin to the plasma which is greatly amplified while the current sheath moves down the electrodes. As with a spinning bullet, the spin can stabilize the sheath, making the output more repeatable. The sequence of five highly similar shots ended when the team deliberately changed the axial field to 4 gauss. While this is suggestive of a positive effect, more data will be needed to unequivocally demonstrate the role of the AFC.



Automation of data collection allows more shots, faster progress

Changes to our data collection software have allowed us to reduce the time we take between shots, thus speeding our research progress. Until this month, it took several minutes to download the data from all 24 channels on our six oscilloscopes. This significantly extended the time it took us to prepare to fire the next shot. Thanks to work by our IT contractor, Ivana Karamitsos, our software was revised to reduce the data collection time to under a minute. With more shots per day, we’ll make faster progress. Coming soon—faster data analysis, too!


Latest FF-1 tweaking aims to eliminate small tilts

In LPP’s continuing effort to improve the symmetry of FF-1’s electrodes, we made modifications to the central o-ring and insulating Mylar sheets to eliminate a small tilt we had detected in the alignment of the electrodes. The alignment of the electrodes is critical in producing a symmetric current sheath, which in turn is needed to get the highest compression of the plasmoid where the fusion reactions occur. There is only a 15 mil (thousandths of an inch) clearance between the insulator and the cathode, or outer electrode, so this distance must be kept constant to within one mil around the whole circumference of the insulator. While previous efforts have accurately centered the insulator at its base, any slight tilt in the large steel plate holding the anode can create a misalignment when the insulator passes close to the cathode.

LPP’s team did detect such a tilt. The cause was a small error in the dimensions of a rubber o-ring that surrounds the anode and provides a vacuum seal to prevent air from entering the vacuum chamber. Because the ring was too thick, it did not compress enough under the weight of the upper steel plate (which is attached to the anode) to rest securely on the Mylar plastic insulating layers and the lower steel plate (which is attached to the cathode). Instead, the o-ring carried the main weight and allowed the steel to tilt slightly. A reduction in the o-ring thickness as well as adding more lead weights to increase the compression will cure this problem, and the solution was tested by assembling the electrodes, insulator, and plates on our work table. After a breakdown earlier in November, improvements are underway to protect the inner assembly to electrical breakdown at the 120 kV levels that we expect to reach during future shots. LPP’s team expects that the elimination of the tilt will improve symmetry and increase fusion yield.



http://www.lawrencevilleplasmaphysic...in-3&Itemid=90

[ltsmotorsport]

One step closer to controlling nuclear fusion
January 13, 2012
By Nicolas Guérin

Using a heating system, physicists have succeeded for the first time in preventing the development of instabilities in an efficient alternative way relevant to a future nuclear fusion reactor. It’s an important step forward in the effort to build the future ITER reactor.

Scientists have achieved a milestone: they have managed to stop the growth of instabilities inside a nuclear fusion reactor. How? Here’s a look at this energy source, which despite being challenging to control, is nevertheless extremely promising.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-...fusion.html?=y

[scalziand]

Apparently NASA takes LENR very seriously.

http://technologygateway.nasa.gov/me...lenr/lenr.html

[scalziand]

Quarterly 'update' from the Polywell boys.

http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency...419&qtr=2011Q4

During 4Q of 2011, EMC2 has modified the electron injectors to increase the plasma heating. The higher plasma density in WB-8 prompted the need for higher heating power. We plan to operate WB-8 in high beta regime with the modified electron injectors during 1Q of 2012.

[scalziand]

Cold Fusion with over ten times energy gain was demonstrated at MIT

As part of the IAP Course on COLD FUSION at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Mitchell Swartz, JET Energy, and Prof. Peter Hagelstein demonstrated cold fusion openly for scientists and engineers. The demonstration was a two day part of the detailed, yet overview, seven day course run by Prof. Hagelstein and Dr. Swartz, and followed the first open demonstrations of cold fusion at MIT in 2003. This JET Energy NANOR(TM) demonstrated a significant energy gain greater than 10, much larger than the previous open demonstration. This exhibition is also remarkable because it confirmed the role of the nanoengineered lattice in enabling the CF/LANR activity. It followed Prof. Hagelstein sharing his breakthrough explanatory theory of cold fusion during the first 5 days.

The IAP Short Course (7 days) on Cold Fusion and Lattice Assisted Nuclear Reactions has meticulously developed the salient point that skeptics of cold fusion were wrong, and that scientific theories do exist for understanding the difficult to achieve reactions. Here, on day 3, Prof. Hagelstein demonstrates experimental results proving the role of deuteron flux in PdD hydrides resulting in excess heat accompanied by commensurate de novo helium-4 production, and a visiting engineer from Canada makes a contributory point.

[whiteford]

Originally Posted by scalziand

That would be Hutchison, not Hudgison.

indeed thanks for the correction.

[M II A II R II K]

Scientists See Solution to Critical Barrier to Fusion


Apr. 23, 2012

Read More: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...=Google+Reader

.....

An in-depth analysis by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) zeroed in on tiny, bubble-like islands that appear in the hot, charged gases -- or plasmas -- during experiments. These minute islands collect impurities that cool the plasma. And it is these islands, the scientists report in the April 20 issue of Physical Review Letters, that are at the root of a long-standing problem known as the "density limit" that can prevent fusion reactors from operating at maximum efficiency.

- "The big mystery is why adding more heating power to the plasma doesn't get you to higher density," said David A. Gates, a principal research physicist at PPPL and co-author of the proposed solution with Luis Delgado-Aparicio, a post-doctoral fellow at PPPL and a visiting scientist at MIT's Plasma Science Fusion Center. "This is critical because density is the key parameter in reaching fusion and people have been puzzling about this for 30 or 40 years." The scientists hit upon their theory in what Gates called "a 10-minute 'Aha!' moment." Working out equations on a whiteboard in Gates' office, the physicists focused on the islands and the impurities that drive away energy. The impurities stem from particles that the plasma kicks up from the tokamak wall. "When you hit this magical density limit, the islands grow and coalesce and the plasma ends up in a disruption," says Delgado-Aparacio.

- These islands actually inflict double damage, the scientists said. Besides cooling the plasma, the islands act as shields that block out added power. The balance tips when more power escapes from the islands than researchers can pump into the plasma through a process called ohmic heating -- the same process that heats a toaster when electricity passes through it. When the islands grow large enough, the electric current that helps to heat and confine the plasma collapses, allowing the plasma to fly apart. Gates and Delgado-Aparicio now hope to test their theory with experiments on a tokamak called Alcator C-Mod at MIT, and on the DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics in San Diego. Among other things, they intend to see if injecting power directly into the islands will lead to higher density. If so, that could help future tokamaks reach the extreme density and 100-million-degree temperatures that fusion requires.

.....

[scalziand]

DARPA has apparently confirmed cold fusion, or whatever you want to call it.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/07/dar...nanoscale.html

“FY 2011 Accomplishments:
- Continued quantification of material parameters that control degree of increase in excess heat generation and life expectancy of power cells in collaboration with the Italian Department of Energy. Established ability to extend active heat generation time from minutes to 2.5 days for pressure-activated power cells..”

[M II A II R II K]

Clean, limitless fusion power could arrive sooner than expected


October 8, 2012

By Sebastian Anthony

Read More: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1...-than-expected

Good news, denizens of Earth: If the findings from two premier research labs are to be believed, commercial nuclear fusion is feasible — and could arrive sooner than expected.

The first breakthrough comes from Sandia National Laboratories (the same engineers who brought us the fanless heatsink). At SNL, a research team has been working on a new way of creating fusion called magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF). This approach is quite similar to the National Ignition Facility at the LLNL in California, where they fuse deuterium and tritium (hydrogen isotopes) by crushing and heating the fuel with 500 trillion watts of laser power. Instead of lasers, MagLIF uses a massive magnetic pulse (26 million amps), created by Sandia’s Z Machine (a huge X-ray generator), to crush a small cylinder containing the hydrogen fuel. Through various optimizations, the researchers discovered a MagLIF setup that almost breaks even (i.e. it almost produces more thermal energy than the electrical energy required to begin the fusion reaction).

Probably more significant is news from the Joint European Torus (JET), a magnetic confinement fusion facility in the UK. JET is very similar to the ITER nuclear fusion reactor, an international project which is being built in the south of France. Whereas NIF and Sandia create an instantaneous fusion reaction using heat and pressure, ITER and JET confine the fusing plasma for a much longer duration using strong magnetic fields, and are thus more inclined towards the steady production of electricity. JET’s breakthrough was the installation of a new beryllium-lined wall and tungsten floor inside the tokamak — the doughnut-shaped inner vessel that confines 11-million-degrees-Celsius plasma.

.....

[M II A II R II K]

Big Idea Bring Back the "Cold Fusion" Dream

Read More: http://discovermagazine.com/2012/nov...er+Magazine%29

In 1989 Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann made a sensational claim that would have changed the world—had it been true. They said they had achieved nuclear fusion at room temperature using a simple tabletop device, thus creating a revolutionary clean energy source they called “cold fusion.” Unfortunately for the University of Utah chemists, multiple attempts to replicate their experiment over ensuing months failed. Cold fusion was considered debunked, and it has lived beyond the fringe of mainstream science ever since.

Yet quietly, more than 20 years later, two of the world’s largest mainstream scientific institutions—NASA and the European physics research center CERN—have revisited the controversial energy-generating experiment. A growing cadre of scientists now suspect that Pons and Fleischmann’s observations were the result not of fusion but of more plausible physical processes. Some are even cautiously optimistic that those processes could be exploited to generate abundant amounts of clean energy. “There’s enough evidence that says we need to look at this,” says Joseph Zawodny, a physicist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia.

.....

[scalziand]

http://www.lawrencevilleplasmaphysic...11,%202013.pdf

FF-1 ion beam output jumps four-fold to a record 380-GW

The ion beam produced by a plasma focus device will be the primary means of getting electric
power out of the device. On February 28, while firing Focus Fusion-1 (FF-1), LPP’s
experimental plasma focus device, the team observed a record 380 GW peak power in the ion
beam. The previous most powerful beam observed had a peak power of 93 GW, so the new beam
is a four-fold improvement. In addition, this was the first beam observed that, at least in part,
went all the way down the meter-long drift tube that is attached to the underside of the FF-1
vacuum chamber. It was also the first beam that equaled or exceeded our theoretical predictions.
Both the higher peak power and the beam’s more vertical direction are signs of increasing
symmetry of the compression that forms the plasmoid, a key goal of LPP’s current efforts.

To give some context for this large power output, the peak input power to FF-1 device from its
capacitor bank is currently around 53 GW while the total average electric power used in the
United States is 440GW. Indeed, the beam was probably considerably more powerful than the
figure we measured, as LPP’s Chief Scientist Eric Lerner calculated that about half the beam
spread out beyond the 1-cm wide entrance hole to the drift tube. We believe this is the most
powerful beam ever measured from a plasma focus device, although we will have to search the
literature more thoroughly to make that claim with certainty.

Of course, the beam only lasted 5-ns, so it and the equally powerful electron beam emitted in the
opposite direct carried only about 4 kJ of energy, about 1/15th of the total energy fed into the
electrodes during the much longer 2-microsecond rise-time of the current from the capacitors. To
get more energy out of the beam than is put in will require much higher fusion yield than is
presently obtained in FF-1.