Re: OT Why No Fusion Powerplants?

On Jan 23, 10:57 am, "Mike Jacoubowsky" <mik...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote
<b...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

This is like asking if Michelin is suppressing antigravity
to maintain their tire monopoly. (RBR readers will now
point out that Michelin doesn't actually even _have_ a
tire monopoly.)

I know this is difficult for you to grasp but the math of the Tokomak
plainly demonstrates that if it works at all it will require an
installation so huge that one would power a major portion of the USA.

I'm not getting this one. I mean, I think I have the concept... that a
fusion reactor would be difficult but not impossible to build, that the
benefits in terms of cheap power would be enormous, and that this would have
the effect of toppling the current power structure (so to speak) and thus
the powers-that-be will do what they can to keep it quiet and put it down.
Do I have it right so far?

What fusion conspiracists want to claim is, I think:
1. The conventional designs for magnetic or inertial
confinement of the plasma scale up to really huge
structures that are too expensive and probably won't work.
The tokamak Tom references is one such design,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power
2. A lone visionary working in a small lab has come
up with an unconventional process (different
confinement scheme, proton-boron reaction, cold fusion,
muon-catalyzed fusion, etc) that avoids the problems of
the way all the boring mainstream stick-in-the-muds are
doing it.
3. The Man - which can mean the Dept. of Energy, the
energy companies, black helicopters, etc - is suppressing
this revolutionary discovery because it threatens to
provide a near-infinite supply of cheap clean power.

None of this really makes much sense, except the part
about how a working tokamak would be very expensive -
but I don't think Tom's right that it would have to be
big enough to power a significant fraction of the US.
That's unimaginably big.

The payoffs from developing a cleaner, more sustainable,
non-Middle-East-dependent source of energy would be
very large, even if the energy is no cheaper.
(Obviously, solar and wind fit this bill, but there
you have both expense and capacity problems currently.)
Given the potential, even scientists working for The Man
would be all over Bussard's method if they thought it
would work.

Even if they are all out to get him, the path to fame
and fortune is pretty simple:
1. Construct tabletop, or room-size, fusion device
2. Detect fusion byproducts (helium, neutrons) and
measure confinement time and plasma temperature
3. Publish results and convince the world
4. Profit

You'll notice I left out the traditional "???" step.

By the way, I'm no expert on fusion physics. Apparently
Tom knows all about the math of the tokamak, so I'll
leave that for him to explain.

Ben
.

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