Meet the WB-8

[tombfyre]

I've chatted about fusion power generation before in various places, and I'm going to again. :3 For years now I've been following the development of the IEC Polywell reactor, as it goes through its various test phases. A few years back new test models were proved to be working examples of fusion power in the lab, and had reactions that were

Comments

[athelind]

In a word: SQUEE.

I haven't been following the Polywell development as closely as I'd like; do you have any good links to the articles you've so tidily summarized?

[tombfyre]

Quite a lot of SQUEE, to be sure. :D Here's a few decent links! Including some I forgot to check through when writing this entry. :D

http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/06/iec-fusion-wb7-wb8-and-wb9-information.html
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/05/iec-fusion-wb8-prototype-is-operating.html
http://iecfusiontech.blogspot.com/2009/05/wb-8-in-works.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell

The Polywell looks like the most promising bit of tech that I've seen to date. ^^

[fragglemon]

I have one of these on my car. :-)

[tombfyre]

Does it have an output of 1.21 Giggawatts?

[jedd_marten]

The challenge will be to engineer it to last long enough to pay for all it's upkeep. Something they've so far failed at with fission reactors. ;)

[tombfyre]

Yar, fission reactors don't last nearly long enough. The beauty part to this kind of system is that it can be much smaller, built with less expensive things like huge pressure domes, etc. Plus you don't have to constantly pay to store nuclear waste. :)