Once again, enthusiasts are claiming here, here, and here that Robert Bussard's inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion program has been restarted by the Office of Naval Research. Given the recent false alarm and its subsequent repudiation, this has to be taken with multiple grains of salt.
I freely admit to being a skeptical but enthusiastic member of the Cult of Bussard, if for no other reason than Bussard's Polywell research is at least plausible and can change the world virtually overnight if it's successful. Given the ridiculously low investment needed to attempt to reproduce the results (well under $10 million), we'd all be insane not to give this a try.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Yep.
I was fooled by the other two releases.
However, I made retractions as soon as I got corrected.
In this case it has been triply confirmed.
Look for a public announcement in the coming weeks.
M.--
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that:
1) The ONR comes through well enough.
2) The WB-6 tests reproduce.
3) Bussard writes the mondo paper.
4) Somebody will spring for the $150M.
5) Everything scales.
It's not very often that you can use the term "panacea" and mean it almost literally, but working, scaled-up, p-B11 IEC comes about as close as you'll ever get.
Looking forward to the announcement.
Post a Comment