BC: FOCUS FUSION
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
This is in the "gee whiz" category ..
Chump change to find out if it's real ..
Focus Fusion - New Approach to Fusion
by Sterling D. Allan
WEST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, USA -- Imagine a non-polluting power plant the size of a local gas station station, that would quietly and safely power 4,000 homes, for a few tenths of a penny per kilowatt-hour, compared to 4-6 cents/kw-h of coal or natural-gas-powered plants. One technician could operate two dozen of these stations remotely. The fuel, widely available, is barely spent in the clean fusion method, and would only need to be changed annually.
That is what inventor Eric Lerner envisions with his focus fusion technology in which hydrogen and boron combine into helium, while giving off tremendous amounts of energy in the process.
The size and power output would make it ideal for providing localized power, reducing transmission losses and large-grid vulnerabilities. The cost and reliability would make it affordable for developing nations and regions.
With proper funding, Lerner's vision could begin being implemented for the end user within half a decade. The few millions he needs seems miniscule compared to the 10 billion dollars being pumped into the multinational Tokamak fusion project in France.
While both process are considered "hot fusion", focus fusion is not "fision." "A fission reactor is the type of nuclear reactor we are all used to, and these use chain reactions which can lead to meltdown. They also have problems with radioactive waste." Focus fusion has no such problems.
Lerner has been pulling together the theoretical basis for this technology for two decades, and has been able to secure funding since 1994, beginning with a grant from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which enabled him to test key components of his theory. Though that funding has dried up due to cuts in NASA's propulsion research, Lerner has been able to land ongoing funding to keep the research advancing.
It is no wonder that NASA would be interested, inasmuch as the modeling predicts that a craft using Lerner's technology could reach Mars in just two weeks. The ionic particles would be escaping out the rocket nozzle at 10,000 kilometer per second, compared to the 2 km/s of present rocket propellant.
In the case of electricity generation, the speeding ionic particles would be coupled directly to the generation of electricity through a beam of electrons being captured by a high tech transformer into capacitors, which would both pulse the energy back through the device to keep the process going, as well as send excess energy out for use on the grid.
This direct coupling is one of the primary advantages of this technology. It side steps the typical approach of converting water to steam, which then drives turbines and generators. That process accounts for 80% of the precision equipment required in a typical power plant scenario. Lerner's fusion process eliminates that need all together, going straight from the fusion energy to electricity.
And his device could be fired up and shut off with the flip of a switch, with no radiation, no threat of meltdown, and not possibility of explosions. It is an all-or-nothing, full-bore or shut-off scenario, but because it can be shut off and turned on so easily, a bank of these, could easily accommodate whatever grid surges and ebbs are faced by the grid on a given day, without wasting unused energy from non-peak times into the environment, which is the case with much of the present grid energy.
How the Theoretical Focus Fusion Reactor Works
The focus fusion reactor process proposed involves two components: the hydrogen-boron fuel, and a plasma focus device. The combination of these into the focus fusion process is the invention of Eric Lerner.
The plasma focus technology has been well established elsewhere, having been around for forty years. Invented in 1964, the Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) device is used in many types of research.
The DPF device consists of two cylindrical copper or berillyum electrodes nested inside each other. The outer electrode is generally no more than six to seven inches in diameter and a foot long. The electrodes are enclosed in a vacuum chamber with a low pressure gas (the fuel for the reaction) filling the space between them. The Dense Plasma Focus device is roughly the size of a coffee can. Next comes the fuel. The gas Lerner plans to use in the DPF is a mixture of Hydrogen and Boron.
"A pulse of electricity from a capacitor bank is discharged across the electrodes. For a few millionths of a second, an intense current flows from the outer to the inner electrode through the gas. This current starts to heat the gas and creates an intense magnetic field."
"Guided by its own magnetic field, the current forms itself into a thin sheath of tiny filaments -- little whirlwinds of hot, electrically-conducting gas called plasma."
"This sheath travels to the end of the inner electrode where the magnetic fields produced by the currents pinch and twist the plasma into a tiny, dense ball only a few thousandths of an inch across called a plasmoid. All of this happens without being guided by external magnets.
"The magnetic fields very quickly collapse, and these changing magnetic fields induce an electric field which causes a beam of electrons to flow in one direction and a beam of ions (atoms that have lost electrons) in the other. The electron beam heats the plasmoid, thus igniting fusion reactions which add more energy to the plasmoid. So in the end, the ion and electron beams contain more energy than was input by the original electric current.
"These beams of charged particles are directed into decelerators which act like particle accelerators in reverse. Instead of using electricity to accelerate charged particles they decelerate charged particles and generate electricity."
Some of this electricity is recycled to power the next fusion pulse, at a frequency expected to be optimal at around 1000 times per second. The excess energy from each pulse is available as net energy, and is available as as product electricity from the fusion power plant for sale to the grid.
Or will be, once this is all proven out and implemented.
X-Ray Shielding
While the process would not create radioactive residuals, it does give off strong x-ray emissions, which can be harnessed by a high-tech photoelectric cell for additional energy capture in a process similar to a photovoltaic solar cell. The primary difference is in the concentration of particles. "Solar energy is diffuse," said Lerner, explaining that the focus fusion process would be highly concentrated: 10,000 megawatts per square meter, compared to 1 kw / m2 with solar. So the cost-to-yield ratio would be extremely favorable in the case of the x-ray energy capture.
In addition to X-rays, the process would also yield "low energy neutrons", Lerner said. These would not produce long-lived radioactivity, but at most would only produce "extremely short-lived elements with very short half-lives."
"You could walk into the facility a second after turning it off, and would not be able to detect any radiation above background," he said.
For safety, Lerner said that a layer of lead and a layer of boron shielding surrounding the reactor would be adequate protection for the focus fusion plant.
As for possible accidents with the reactor, Lerner said that there is "not really anything that could go wrong." "There is no possibility for runaway." "It's 100% safe."
About the worst thing that could happen would be a capacitor failure, but that would not even damage the building, he said.
Of course there are always the electrocution and shorting hazards associated with electricity, but those will be hold true in any plant situation.
Politics and Present Status
Imagine ... at the flip of a switch, going from room temperature (or from the temperature of boiling water in the case of the liquid decaborane fuel), all the way up to a billion degrees, and then up to 600 billion degrees, all in a fraction of a second; then with another flip of the switch, when you are done, going back down to ambient temperature. And in the interim, you have produced excess energy from fusion -- safely, cleanly.
With Lerner's focus fusion research done at the University of Illinois, through the grant from JPL, and his subsequent research at Texas A&M University, as well as research done at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lerner et. al. have proven the ability to attain, and even surpass the billion degree hallmark.
Valone said that such an achievement should have been front page news in the NY Times and Washington Post.
Though Lerner et. al. went beyond the pre-determined level of the performance standard that was set, NASA chose to not publicize that breakthrough, and instead of honoring Lerner et. al. with the accolades they deserved, they and LANL threatened the University and the professor involved, saying that they were not to compare their results with the pet Tokamak project. The professor was so intimidated he stopped working with Lerner.
Lerner's persistent quest to find other federal monies has thus far been unfruitful. "This administration does not want to fund any serious competitor to oil or gas," Lerner said.
Despite the political setbacks, Lerner is pressing forward, and has been successful in acquiring limited funding, though he needs more to reach the next milestone of building a break-even prototype, which will achieve the fusion process with measurable energy output. For that, he needs $1.5 to $2 million dollars. (A pittance compared to the $10 billion being sunk into Tokamak, which Valone considers to be an inferior design.)
Once that milestone is accomplished, "funding will not be a problem," Lerner said.
A full proof-of-concept prototype will be next, which will enable the harnessing -- not just measurement -- of the output energy in the form of usable electricity.
Then, its a matter of preparing for production. Lerner expects that the capital cost, estimated at $200,000 - $300,000 for a 20 MW plant, will be maybe one percent of existing electrical generation plants.
|
