Oxford University Scientific Society
May 14, 2014
Crowdfunding Fusion—Focus Fusion
as the Short Route to Fusion Power
Eric J. LernerChief Scientist, LPPFusion, Inc.
OverviewWhat would happen?Why Crowdfund it?
How can it be so small and cheap?How does it work?
Where are we in getting to fusion power?
What do we need to do to get there?
What Would HappenIf We had Cheap Clean Energy?
What if we could develop in the next five years a 5 MW energy source 10 times cheaper than
any now available that was safe and non-polluting?
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Economic Benefits
17% increase in real income for median industrialized country resident
44% increase in real income for median person in the world
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JOBS, Services and Infrastructure
$5 TRILLION per year not spent on energy
100-150 million new jobs globally
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Environmental Benefits
• End 7 million deaths per year from pollution by coal, diesel, gasoline
• End oil spills, mining devastation• Total recycling with plasma torch
• Money released to end deforestation, environmental clean-up
• No greenhouse gases• No radioactive waste
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Benefits for Peace
No more war to prop up the price of oilFission energy is obsolete—lock up the uranium mines
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Distributed Power• 5 MW generators, safe enough to put
in neighborhoods • far more reliability in disasters, • rapid deployment to towns and
villages throughout the world
Would You Chip In?
What if this new ideal energy source could be demonstrated to be scientifically feasible for only $1 million and
a prototype generator developed for only about $50 million?
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CROWD-funding for Fusion
Launched on Indiegogo May 6By June 15: Goal $200,000 for vital parts
Need $1 million, 12-18 months to scientific feasibility
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Why Crowd-funding For Fusion?
International fusion effort concentrated on single device, ITER
Over 50 scientists have signed an open letter urging broader approach
Only brave investors for fusion research—not enough
Benefits all, so crowdfunding asks all to contribute
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ITER TOKAMAK
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Dense Plasma Focus : small inexpensive device
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Dense Plasma Focus :
small inexpensive device
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FOCUS FUSION – 1, Experimental DEVICE
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Focus-Fusion-1 Experimental Device
12-CAPACITOR BANK
Stored energy 100kJ (vs 10 GJ for JET) Capacitor potential 45 kVCapacitance 75 mFPeak current 1.4-2.8 MA
Electrodes: 5 cm cathode, 2.8 cm anode
LPPFUSION.comSpiral GalaxyQuasars
Beam From Star Formation
REPRODUCING NATURAL INSTABILITIES
Solar Flares
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Key plasma parameters-- such as velocity--are scale-invariant
In Lab: 10 cm , msecSolar flare: 10,000 km, 100 sec
Galaxy: 30 kpc, 15 MySuper-cluster: 100 Mpc, 100Gy
The Cosmic Connection
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Force-Free Vortex Filaments
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How A DPF Device Works
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PLASMOID
8ns after pinch
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WHAT IS ANEUTRONIC FUSION? It’s a fusion using aneutronic fuel, ideally made of
hydrogen and boron, pB11, which produces no neutrons and thus no radioactive waste.
Aneutronic → No neutrons → No Radioactive waste
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ENERGY CAPTURE DEVICEX-rays, Ion Beams
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SAFE• NO neutrons from main reaction• NO high energy neutrons• NO radioactive waste—electrodes
contain less radioactivity than a roomful of people.
• Generator safe to service without protection 9 hours after turn-off
How Do we Reduce X-ray Cooling?
X-ray emission increases as z2
Boron 25 x as emissive as hydrogenHow do we avoid this?
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Reducing X-ray CoolingQuantum Magnetic Field Effect
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Quantum Magnetic Field Effect
QMEF reduces Te by >20xCuts X-ray by >4xAllows ignition of pB11BUT only with B>~3 GG
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WHERE ARE WE?Ion temperature— goal achieved —over
1.8 billion degrees, enough to ignite pB11
Confinement time— goal achieved 20 ns—more than 8 ns goal
Energy transfer to plasmoid—over 50% of goal
Density—must increase by 10,000
Ion energy of 160 keV
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Generated Interest
How Does it Get so Hot?Main Mechanism is Viscous Heating—
Haines, others
Ordered Motion Into Random Motion
Higher Densities, Electron Beam Wave Heating
Fusion ComparisonFusion Yield/Energy Input
Energy output per 1,000 J inputDT: DD:JET 2.2 J 0.01 JSarov DPF 0.2 J 0.00045 JNIF 0.03 JFF-1 DPF 0.0025
J
Why Does DPF Fusion Yield Plateau?
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1.00E+02 1.00E+031.00E+06
1.00E+07
1.00E+08
1.00E+09
1.00E+10
1.00E+11
1.00E+12f(x) = NaN x^NaNR² = NaN
Buenos Aires(PFI)FF-1Power (FF-1)Frascati(1MJ)LimeilNTSCSwierkU of Illinois LPPStuttgart(HV)DarmstadtStuttgart(Poseidon)TAVADIL(PAEO)
Current I (kA)
Neu
tron
Yie
ld
Impurities from Electrode Vaporization
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34 35 36 37 38 39 40 410
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
Charging voltage (kV)
Impu
rity
/D m
ass
rati
o
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Plasma 1/3 metal by mass, mostly Ag, 1% by number
Uneven impurity distribution causes asymmetric sheath, poor compression
Increase in collision rate with zeff4 prevents
magnetization of filaments, disrupts them
How Do ImpuritiesAffect Performance?
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What We Should See
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What We Actually See
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Why More Effect with Higher Current?
1) Arcing above 2 MA/cm2
2) Magnetization of filaments easier to disrupt
Magnetization depends on B/n. For B2/n constant, B/n declines with increasing B
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Monolithic Tungsten Anode
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Monolithic Cathode
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Steps To Increase Density
50x-- Achieve theoretical density—tungsten electrodes to eliminate impurity
10x-- Increase current to 2.8 MA
20x-- Better compression with heavier pB11
Getting the B Field• FF-1Now– 0.06 GG
With filaments—0.6 GGFull current—1.3 GGWith pB11—10 GG
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Needed: Beryllium electrodes
Tungsten is fine for impurity, but absorbs too many x-rays
Beryllium far more transparentBut costs-- (single unit)--$250,000
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Biggest Engineering Challenges
Heat Removal—Electrode Erosion• Sputtering may limit electrode lifetime
but with re-deposition a few weeks may be OK
• Anode will be heated by x-rays- key upper limiting factor in repetition rate
• Deposition of boron- key lower limit on repetition rate
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Why Has it Taken So Long?Massive Underfunding:
Tungsten too expensive
Too few large experiments
Under staffing slows progress
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Let Focus Fusion
emPOWERtheWORLD