On Indiegogo collect money for low-cost prototype fusion reactor

At international kraudfandingovyh platforms for quite some time there is an interesting trend: the collection of money for all sorts of popular science and research projects. Of course, the man in the street is difficult to determine how realistic is that any other scientific project than benefit fraudsters, but there are quite respectable "white" projects.

The other day it was announced the beginning of the collection of funds for low-cost fusion reactor, the value of which, according to developers, may reach hundreds of millions and billions of dollars, and only 300 thousand. And the response, again the same, according to developers, will be controlled. Is it likely - propose to discuss in the comments to this material.

The project was called Focus Fusion. Its capabilities are based on what is considered to be a lack of modern fusion reactors - plasma instability, inability to keep an extremely hot plasma any length of time to carry out a controlled thermonuclear reaction and obtain energy.

For reference, i>: One of the authors of the project, the team leader - Eric Lerner , physicist, writer - popularizer of science. In 1984 he began to study the plasma, and received grants for his research, in particular, from NASA ( Jet Propulsion Laboratory ).

Project Focus Fusion has been around a long time, in particular, Lerner told about it at the 2007 Google Tech Talk.

Among other things, Eric Lerner is the author of about 600 scientific and popular articles, as well as the owner of several awards, including from the Aviation Space Writers Association. He is also the author of "The Big Bang was not" (it is not godly book, so to speak, and the treatise on the evolution of the universe). Of course, the idea of ​​the book is different from the conventional theory, but it can not be called unscientific. I>

Authors of the project using the pinch effect, which are actively fighting in state programs on nuclear fusion for energy production. Slightly below - video explanation process.



The project team leads its work, published in 2012 in zhunale «Physics of Plasmas», as proof that the work on the project began long before he started raising money.



The paper describes the successful implementation experience with plasma heating by 1, 8 billion degrees Celsius (the first goal of the team) and the creation of a tiny plasmoid existing 10-billionth of a second (the second goal). The third objective - the extension of the lifetime of the plasmoid to "ignite" a fusion reaction. There is, by the way, and научный review about this project.

The project team has created its small device, where the main role is played by the cylindrical electrodes. Through them passed a current of millions of amperes, and as a result creates a "dense plasma." Here is a video which shows how it all works:

Money is needed to purchase a team set of electrodes, the value of which amounts to 200 thousand US dollars. Tungsten electrodes, in the case of project financing, will be installed in July. In addition, the team also needed electrodes of beryllium, tungsten will crack because of the intense X-ray radiation at the site of the reaction.

This acquisition will help to prolong the lifetime of the dense and very hot plasmoid, for a more or less continuous fusion reaction. Actually, the project team does not claim that they can expect a 100% success, but the probability of a positive result is very high.

In general, all sounds pretty interesting, but, of course, wait for the comments of people who know the physics well enough to express his authoritative opinion about the reality of the implementation of such a project.

Via Indiegogo

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/223509/