Monday, August 26, 2013

New Jersey firm claims nuclear fusion triumph



Follow this blog:
RSS

New Jersey firm claims nuclear fusion triumph

By  | August 26, 2013, 5:00 AM PDT
Electrifying. Lawrenceville Plasma Physics' "aneutronic" fusion does not require a turbine. It directly yields electricity via x-rays and ion beams, as shown in this slide from LPP's Google Solve for X presentation.
A small New Jersey firm claims to have trumped other nuclear fusion companies including giant Lockheed Martin at a recent bake-off run by Google.
Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) of Middlesex, N.J., said in a press release that its novel fusion technology greatly exceeded the “density-time-temperature” performance of the other three companies who presented at the Google Solve for X event in June, including Lockheed Martin, Tri-Alpha Energy, and General Fusion.
Many people regard fusion as the ultimate source of safe, carbon-free, efficient energy. Unlike today’s nuclear fission, which splits atoms, fusion combines them.
Scientists began chasing the fusion dream in the 1950s. So far, no one has developed a fusion machine that can deliver more energy than it requires on a steady basis.
The “density-time-temperature” goal is one measure of reaching that goal. Fusion requires a combination of confining fuel at high temperatures for a period of time. The value for each criterion can vary. Most of the participants at the Google gathering in Mountain View, Calif., use a much higher density of fuel than does the “conventional” tokamak approach such as the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), a 20-story tokamak under construction in Cadarache, France in which fuel is confined in a large space and is not dense.
LPP is developing a type of fusion called “aneutronic” that does not require a turbine because its direct product is electricity - charged ions. Today’s fission reactors as well as “conventional” fusion devices under development such as ITER yield heat that drives a turbine to generate electricity.
Aneutronic requires significantly higher temperatures than “conventional” fusion, which theoretically operates at around 100-to-150 million degrees C.Last year, LPP reported achieving a record temperature of 1.8 billion degrees C, and said it next needed to increase densities.
Tri-Alpha, a stealth company based in Foothill Ranch, Calif., is also developing aneutronic fusion, with a team of what tiny LPP claimed is 150 researchers (not bad for a stealth company!). Tri-Alpha’s financial backers include Russia as well as Goldman Sachs, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and venture capital firms Venrock, Vulcan Capital and New Enterprise Associates.
“LPP reported a density-time-temperature product over 2,000 times higher than that of Tri-Alpha,” LPP said in its release.
LPP, which has less funding than the secretive California outfit, is collaborating with scientists from Iran, a country with advanced knowledge in peaceful aneutronic fusion. LPP calls its device the Focus Fusion machine.
Competition aside, the four fusion companies agreed at the Google Solve for X event to push Congress to broaden its fusion funding away from what LPP president Eric Lerner said is a current emphasis on tokamaks, and to include unconventional approaches such as those under way by the four companies, including aneutronic technology.
Google Solve for X is an initiative by Google to help solve global issues.Lockheed Martin’s fusion project first came to light at a Solve for X event. Two different videos of Lerner’s presentation are available here and here.
Image is a screen grab from video of presentation by LPP president Eric Lerner at the Google event.
Note: Post updated at 6:43 PDT with additional temperature information.
More fusion on SmartPlanet:
All sorts of alternative nuclear stories here, including thorium, molten salt, pebble beds, fast reactors, modular reactors, fusion and more.
Start your week smarter with our weekly e-mail newsletter. It's your cheat sheet for good ideas. Get it.
Mark Halper

About Mark Halper

Mark Halper is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.
If you liked this, don't miss...
4
Comments

Join the conversation!

Follow via:
RSS
Show:
0Votes
Thanks
Thanks for putting "conventional" in quotes above, since there is no such thing as "coventional" fusion generation! Unless, of course, you count the sun! wink
Posted by omb00900@...
11 hrs ago
0Votes
Funny stuff, this fusion
Appreciate that omb00900 (ok if I just call you 'omb'?) Yes, I equate 'tokamaks' with the "conventional" approach. Perhaps if the unconventional varieties of fusion such as aneutronic received some more funding we'd finally close the perennial 30-year gap between vision and yet-to-be-achieved reality....
Posted by markhalper
10 hrs ago
0Votes
Good Grief!
It never ends, the search for perpetual motion machines ... none of which can pay for themselves.
Posted by steve from virginia
7 hrs ago
+1Vote
If they can pull this off...
I've been watching this one for a while. If they can pull it off, it is not just about energy and ecology, it is also about sociology. Energy is the foundation of survival and our energy source will shape our society and even humanity. If you need something huge like the tokomak, you are naturally going to end up with a more centralized society. Something like this is just naturally going to lead to a less centralized society, which should be more resilient and diverse.
Posted by a1swdeveloper
3 hrs ago
Join the SmartPlanet community and join the conversation! Signing up is fast and free. Don't wait -- we want to hear your opinion!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.