The Devil's Kitchen: Nuclear Fusion update

Current

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Nuclear Fusion update

Posted by Devil's Kitchen at 6/25/2009 12:04:00 AM

A Polywell in operation: built as a summer project (cost: $3,000) by students at Pennisula College in the US.

As regular readers will know, your humble Devil has been following the Polywell Fusor project for some years now.

The last lot of testing was done on WB-7, but the results have been somewhat shrouded in secrecy, due to the involvement of the US Navy in funding the project.

However, IEC Fusion Technology finally has some news on this front: essentially, the WB-8 has been commissioned.

To gain the full significance, it is worth reading the whole post; however, the main conclusions are reasonably clear.

All in all the new contract has a lot of good news. To sum up:
What it means about past work: it went well.

What it means for the future: verifying engineering rules

More: there is a plan to test the Hydrogen/Boron 11 fuel combination

More: They must be confident of results since they are planning a WB-9

It is also worth reminding ourselves that the Fusor project is costing a few million dollars, whereas the so-far utterly unsuccessful tokamak ITER project—which involves such delightful regimes as China—is costing tens of billions and is already severely over-budget and behind schedule.

Guess which one our government is backing and funding...?

Labels: energy, good deeds, technical, technology, wild speculation

Posted by Devil's Kitchen at 6/25/2009 12:04:00 AM

11 Blogger Comments:

Anonymous said...: Dr. Nebel has also said he believes we will know for sure about Polywell in 1.5-2 years.
Power and Control; 6/25/2009 04:49:00 AM
Umbongo said...: BTW we (ie the taxpayers) are still giving bilateral aid to China: third world country and all that crap . . . . .; 6/25/2009 11:51:00 AM
Anonymous said...: the photo shows a grid. its not a polywell.; 6/25/2009 01:54:00 PM
HSLD said...: The WB6 model is held together with jubilee clips in the wikipaedia picture.
I find this quite encouraging, but don't really know why...; 6/25/2009 03:54:00 PM
archduke said...: Dr Bussard giving a talk on the polywell fusor at Google

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhL5VO2NStU

interesting stuff!; 6/25/2009 04:29:00 PM
archduke said...: The WB-8 will be configured as a dodecahedron

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

i couldnt help remembering Carl Sagan's "Contact" novel - the interstellar spaceship built is in the shape of a ... dodecahedron.

weird eh?; 6/25/2009 04:48:00 PM
archduke said...: discussion forum on polywell fusion:

http://talk-polywell.org/bb/index.php; 6/25/2009 04:52:00 PM
archduke said...: polywell fusor story has been noticed on Daily Kos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/20/729457/-Polywell-Proton-Boron-fusion-reactor-approved; 6/25/2009 05:09:00 PM
microdave said...: There's nothing wrong with Jubilee clips.....; 6/25/2009 09:55:00 PM
gruad said...: Mate, I is planning to drink 6 Carlsberg Special Brew the night Brown loses power.

The power of your posts suggest you achieve this level of inebriation every night. But this is Thatcher's fault because if you had free milk you would not be so bitter and twisted.

Come and bail me out on Brownout night!; 6/25/2009 10:22:00 PM
gruad said...: Labour 6/1 to win the election.

Will crack another Carly Grenade to celebrate; 6/25/2009 10:24:00 PM

Links to this post:

<$BlogBacklinkTitle$>: <$BlogBacklinkSnippet$>
posted by <$BlogBacklinkAuthor$> @ <$BlogBacklinkDateTime$>

Create a Link

<< Home

"The best British political/libertarian blog on the web. Consistently excellent but not for the squeamish."—Christopher Snowdon
"[He] runs the infamous and fantastically sweary Devil’s Kitchen blog, and because he’s one of the naughtiest geeks (second only to the incredibly, incredibly naughty Guido Fawkes) he’s right at the top of the evil dork hierarchy."—Charlotte Gore
"The Devil's Kitchen exposes hypocrisy everywhere, no holds barred."—Wrinkled Weasel
"People can still be controversial and influential whilst retaining integrity—Devil's Kitchen springs to mind—and attract frequent but intelligent comment."—Steve Shark, at B&D
"Sometimes too much, sometimes wrong, sometimes just too much but always worth a read. Not so much a blog as a force of nature."—The Nameless Libertarian
"The Devil's Kitchen—a terrifying blog that covers an astonishing range of subjects with an informed passion and a rage against the machine that leaves me in awe..."—Polaris
"He rants like no one else in the blogosphere. But it's ranting in an eloquent, if sweary, kind of way. Eton taught him a lot."—Iain Dale
"But for all that, he is a brilliant writer—incisive, fisker- extraordinaire and with an over developed sense of humour... And he can back up his sometimes extraordinary views with some good old fashioned intellectual rigour... I'm promoting him on my blogroll to a daily read."—Iain Dale
"... an intelligent guy and a brilliant writer..."—A Very British Dude
"... the glorious Devil's Kitchen blog—it's not for the squeamish or easily offended..."—Samizdata
"... a very, smart article... takes a pretty firm libertarian line on the matter."—Samizdata
"By the way, DK seems to be on fucking good form at the moment."—Brian Mickelthwait
"Perhaps the best paragraph ever written in the history of human creation. It's our Devil on fine form."—Vindico
"Devil's Kitchen is the big name on the free-market libertarian strand of the British blogosphere... Profane rants are the immediate stand-out feature of DK's blog, but the ranting is backed up by some formidable argument on a wide range of issues particularly relating to British and European parliamentary politics, economics, and civil liberties."—Question That
"... an excellent, intelligent UK political blog which includes a great deal of swearing."—Dr Aubrey Blumsohn
"I like the Devil's Kitchen. I think it's one of the best written and funniest blogs in the business."—Conservative Party Reptile
"The. Top. UK. Blogger."—My Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
"For sheer intelligence, erudition and fun, Iain Dale's Diary, Cranmer and Devil's Kitchen are so far ahead of the rest I don't see how they can figure in a top ten. They are the Beatles, Stones and Who of the blog world; the Astair, Bogart and Marlon Brando of the blog world; the Gerswin, Porter and Novello of the blog world; the Dot Cotton, Pat Butcher, Bette Lynch of the blog world..."—Wrinkled Weasel
"It's the blogging equivalent of someone eating Ostrich Vindaloo, washed down by ten bottles of Jamaican hot pepper sauce and then proceeding to breathe very close to your face while talking about how lovely our politicians are... But there's much more to his writing than four letter words."—Tom Tyler
"God bless the Devil's Kitchen... Colourful as his invective is, I cannot fault his accuracy."—Tom Paine
"The Devil's Kitchen is a life-affirming, life-enhancing blog ... This particular post will also lead you to some of the best soldiers in the army of swearbloggers of which he is Field Marshal."—The Last Ditch
"... underneath all the ranting and swearing [DK]'s a very intelligent and thoughtful writer whom many people ... take seriously, despite disagreeing with much of what he says."—Not Saussure
"... the most foul-mouthed of bloggers, Devils Kitchen, was always likely to provoke (sometimes disgust, but more often admiration)."—The Times Online
"The always entertaining Mr Devil's Kitchen..."—The Times's Comment Central
"Frankly, this is ranting of the very highest calibre."—The Nameless Libertarian
"I don't mean it literally, or even metaphorically. I just find that his atheism aside, I agree with everything the Devil (of Kitchen fame...) says. I particularly enjoy his well crafted and sharp swearing, especially when addressed at self righteous lefties..."—The Tin Drummer
"Spot on accurate and delightful in its simplicity, Devil's Kitchen is one of the reasons that we're not ready to write off EUroweenie-land just yet. At least not until we get done evacuating the ones with brains."—Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
"This hugely entertaining, articulate, witty Scottish commentator is also one of the most foul-mouthed bloggers around. Gird up your loins and have a look. Essential reading."—Doctor Crippen
"The Devil's Kitchen is one of the foremost blogs in the UK. The DK is bawdy, foul-mouthed, tasteless, vulgar, offensive and frequently goes beyond all boundaries of taste and decency. So why on earth does Dr Crippen read the DK? Because he reduces me to a state of quivering, helpless laughter."—Doctor Crippen's Grand Rounds
"DK is a take-no-prisoners sort of libertarian. His blog is renowned for its propensity for foul-mouthed invective, which can be both amusing and tiresome by turns. Nevertheless, he is usually lucid, often scintillating and sometimes illuminating."—Dr Syn
"If you enjoy a superior anti-Left rant, albeit one with a heavy dash of cursing, you could do worse than visit the Devil's Kitchen. The Devil is an astute observer of the evils of NuLabour, that's for sure. I for one stand converted to the Devil and all his works."—Istanbul Tory
"... a sick individual."—Peter Briffa
"This fellow is sharp as a tack, funny as hell, and—when something pisses him off—meaner than a badger with a case of the bullhead clap."—Green Hell
"Foul-mouthed eloquence of the highest standard. In bad taste, offensive, immoderate and slanderous. F***ing brilliant!—Guest, No2ID Forum
"a powerfully written right-of-center blog..."—Mangan's Miscellany
"I tend to enjoy Devil's Kitchen not only because I disagree with him quite a lot of the time but because I actually have to use my brain to articulate why."—Rhetorically Speaking
"This blog is currently slamming. Politics certainly ain't all my own. But style and prose is tight, fierce, provocative. And funny. OK, I am a child—swear words still crack a laugh."—Qwan
"hedonistic, abrasive but usually good-natured..."—The G-Gnome
"10,000 words per hour blogging output... prolific or obsessive compulsive I have yet to decide..."—Europhobia
"a more favoured blog from the sensible Right..."—Great Britain...
"Devils Kitchen, a right thinking man indeed..."—EU Serf
"an excellent blog..."—Rottweiler Puppy
"Anyone can cuss. But to curse in an imaginative fashion takes work."—Liftport Staff Blog
"The Devil's Kitchen: really very funny political blog."—Ink & Incapability
"I've been laffing fit to burst at the unashamed sweariness of the Devil's Kitchen ~ certainly my favourite place recently."—SoupDragon
"You can't beat the writing and general I-may-not-know-about-being-polite-but-I-know-what-I-like attitude."—SoupDragon
"Best. Fisking. Ever. I'm still laughing."—LC Wes, Imperial Mohel
"Art."—Bob
"It made me laugh out loud, and laugh so hard—and I don't even get all the references... I hope his politics don't offend you, but he is very funny."—Furious, WoT Forum
"DK himself is unashamedly right-wing, vitriolic and foul mouthed, liberally scattering his posts with four-letter-words... Not to be read if you're easily offended, but highly entertaining and very much tongue in cheek..."—Everything Is Electric
"This blog is absolutely wasted here and should be on the front page of one of the broadsheets..."—Commenter at The Kitchen
"[This Labour government] is the most mendacious, dishonest, endemically corrupt, power-hungry, incompetent, illiberal fucking shower of shits that has ruled this country..."—DK