Crowdfunding Plans Move Forward as 60 Volunteer – New video + March 9 livestream event!

This news item is part of LPP's February 2014 progress report.  Download the full report as a PDF here.  Discuss this news item on the Focus Fusion Society forums here.

As LPP, in cooperation with the Focus Fusion Society, moves forward toward launching its first crowdfunding drive, over 60 volunteers have come forward to help by signing up at LPP’s website. In crowdfunding, contributions are solicited on central websites, such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo. The volunteers, from fifteen countries, have started to publicize the crowdfunding effort and have themselves pledged over $12,000. In addition, volunteers are starting to take on other tasks, such as selecting the best photos to upload to LPP’s new website, planned to go live in late March.

On March 9, LPP will host our first crowdfunding “meet-up” in New York City, from 2PM to 4PM Eastern at Tekserve on 119 West 23rd Street.  For those unable to attend in person, the event will be livestreamed via Google+ Hangouts on Air, from LPP’s new Youtube channel.

The initial crowdfunding effort is planned to kick off on Earth Day, April 22.  It will aim to raise the money needed for the project’s most expensive set of equipment—the beryllium electrodes that will replace the tungsten electrodes now in the works. Beryllium will be needed for the final part of the research drive to demonstrate scientific feasibility because of the intense x-rays that will be generated as FF-1 approaches its highest performance. The x-rays are absorbed in a tiny layer of tungsten, and will vaporize it. But beryllium will be transparent to most x-rays and will spread out the rest harmlessly. However, beryllium is far more expensive than tungsten and the electrodes will cost as much as $250,000, something crowdfunding can supply.

Fall 2013 Focus Fusion Cleantech NYC talk now available

In other video news, LPP has launched our own YouTube channel, separate from the Focus Fusion Society’s still valued presence at http://www.youtube.com/FocusFusionSociety and linked to our Google+ Page.  The new channel’s first video is a recording of a talk by Eric at the NYC Cleantech Opportunities event in November 2013.  Share it or other videos to introduce Focus Fusion to your network!

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Digging in the Data—oscillations and x-rays make for insulator optimism

This news item is part of LPP's February 2014 progress report.  Download the full report as a PDF here.  Discuss this news item on the Focus Fusion Society forums here.

The months that FF-1 is not running have given the LPP research team time to look more deeply at the hundreds of gigabytes of data that the experiments have been generating. One puzzle LPP Electrical Engineer Fred van Roessel looked at was the rapid oscillation in current and voltage that occurs when the machine fires and right after the pinch (see graph). These are almost always seen in plasma focus devices but have not had a satisfactory explanation. Van Roessel wrote programs to analyze the oscillations, concluding that they were due to current sloshing back and forth along the transmission plates that connect the capacitors to the electrodes. This hypothesis implied that the peak voltage the device generates during the pinch is proportional to the total drop in current at the same time. Sure enough, the data for the past year showed that the ratio of the voltage spike at the time of the pinch relative to the drop in current during the pinch is constant at 72 milliohms with a standard deviation of only 16%.

The above graph points out key features of the high voltage probe signal.

This result is important because it allows us to predict that the maximum possible voltage spike is 200 kV, well below the 1 MV estimated strength of the main Mylar insulators. It is even further below the 5 MV strength of the ceramic insulator that separates the electrodes.

In addition, we now have some part-time help with the data analysis—our new high school intern, Matthew Ho. Matt has been working with Van Roessel and Lerner to analyze the x-ray data which will give insight into the electrons in the plasmoid. Some tantalizing clues have already turned up. Stay tuned!

LPP and Iran's PPRC collaborate on pre-ionization experiments in pursuit of clean, peaceful energy

This news item is part of LPP's February 2014 progress report.  Download the full report as a PDF here.  Discuss this news item on the Focus Fusion Society forums here.  Find out more about LPP's Fusion For Peace initiative at FusionForPeace.org.

LPP’s research team, having identified impurities vaporized from the electrodes as the main obstacle to higher yields, has been attempting to account theoretically for all sources of vaporization, so as to eliminate them. In January, the team looked more closely at the material eroded from around the anode near the insulator (see photo). Two things seemed surprising: the amount of material—about 1 mg per shot, or half of all the impurities in the plasma; and the fact that the vaporization occurred right at the start of the pulse, when the current flow is the weakest. No possible mechanism seemed to account for so much erosion so fast.

The FF-1 anode, which is plated with 0.001 inches of silver, shows a ring of erosion near the end of the insulator (which has been removed along with the cathode). On the right side, where deposits have been cleaned away, the copper color shows clearly where a ring of silver has been vaporized and measurements show about 0.12 grams eroded in 125 shots. On the left side, not cleaned, the copper is deposited lower on the anode, covering up silver below.

A literature search turned up the answer: runaway electrons. Runaway electrons occur when very strong electric fields, such as in lightning bolts, accelerate electrons moving through a mainly neutral gas. If the field is strong enough the electrons gain more energy from each collision with an atom than they lose in the collision, thus speeding up to high energy.  In FF-1, electrons gains as much as 3 keV of energy, slamming into the anode and depositing enough heat energy to vaporize the silver plating and some of the copper underneath.  Once the plasma is fully ionized and its resistance drops, the high accelerating fields no longer exist, so the runaway electrons stop—But by then, the plasma has already been contaminated.

There are two solutions to this problem. One is simply increasing the initial pressure of the gas, so more collisions occur. This will happen with FF-1 as it approaches peak current. But for now, an additional solution is needed: pre-ionization. In this technique a small current breaks down the plasma resistance before the main pulse passes through—smoothing the way, as it were. The small pulse has too little energy to cause runaway electrons, and by the time the main pulse comes through, the resistance that can sustain the large electric field is gone.  Experiments by plasma focus groups in Pakistan and elsewhere had good results with pre-ionization.

To directly test if pre-ionization can eliminate the “ring around the anode” erosion, LPP’s collaborators at the Plasma Physics Research Center (PPRC) in Tehran, Iran are conducting experiments using this technique on their 2-kJ DPF device. At the same time, LPP is doing preliminary tests of pre-ionization techniques on FF-1. Together, the experiments should be able to show how to eliminate this source of erosion prior to FF-1’s next round of experiments with tungsten electrodes.

Plasma focus research moves forward as Russian device hits 30 J with deuterium-tritium

This news item is part of LPP's February 2014 progress report.  Download the full report as a PDF here.  Discuss this news item on the Focus Fusion Society forums here.

Many news outlets widely—and inaccurately—reported new results from the huge National Ignition Facility (NIF) as achieving the long sought-after goal of breakeven for fusion.  What NIF in fact reported was a fusion yield of 17 kJ, more than the energy actually absorbed by the fuel pellet. The total input energy to the machine was far larger—some 500 MJ, so that 1 J of fusion was produced for each 30,000 J of input. This was indeed a big step upwards for NIF researchers but far from breakeven.

Meanwhile, science news reporters overlooked a major accomplishment in fusion a year ago by Russian researchers using a plasma focus device.  These researchers performed their work at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center, All Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics, in Sarov.  They reported fusion yields of 30 J (1.3 x 10^13 neutrons) with the same deuterium-tritium fuel used by NIF. Since the total energy fed into the capacitors was 135 kJ, the Sarov team achieved a fusion yield of 1 J per 4,500 J of input, more than six times better than the NIF results. (The record for any DT fusion experiment is the JET tokamak in the UK, which in 1997 produced 1 J of energy per 450 J of input.)

While LPP’s FF-1 device is not intended for use with DT fuel, it is useful to compare our results with those of the Sarov machine when using pure deuterium, a far less reactive fuel. With pure deuterium (D), Sarov produced 1 J of output per 2.2 MJ of input.  FF-1’s best results are 1 J of output per 400 kJ of input, about four times better. (The best results for any plasma focus using pure D are around 1 J for 100kJ of input, about the same as the best results ever obtained for tokamaks using the same fuel.)

Tungsten electrodes are on their way with improved anode design

This news item is part of LPP's February 2014 progress report.  Download the full report as a PDF here.  Discuss this news item on the Focus Fusion Society forums here.

The tungsten electrodes needed for LPP’s next set of experiments are rolling forward. The electrodes are needed to eliminate impurities, and cleaner plasma is expected to raise density and yield in the tiny plasmoids where fusion reactions take place.  They are on track to be installed by mid-May. The tungsten blank for the cathode (the larger outer electrode) has been completed by Tungsten Heavy Powder and is being shipped to New Jersey. There another company, New Jersey Precision Technology, will machine the block into the exact shape required, a complex process expected to take about 10 weeks.

In the meantime, LPP’s research team decided that the tungsten anode needed an improved design. Calculations by Chief Scientist Eric Lerner indicated that the highest current anticipated with FF-1 will be 2.8 Mega-Amperes, about twice the highest yet achieved.  Lerner’s calculations showed this high current could cause arcing at the joint between the anode and its steel base. So the anode was redesigned into a plate-and-cylinder combination shape so that the anode, like the cathode, will connect to the rest of the circuit outside the vacuum chamber. Not only will this design eliminate any possibility of plasma impurities from arcing, but by spreading the current at the join out into a larger diameter, it will eliminate any arcing at all, even at the highest currents. LPP Consultant John Thompson and LPP Board of Advisors member Rudy Frisch helped with the anode design and the corresponding design of a “ring of steel” that will apply even pressure to the anode connection, ensuring no arcing. With the re-design, the anode, too, is now being manufactured in time for May installation.

Above: The tungsten blank, with outer diameter of 12” and total weight approaching 200 lbs, is prepped for shipping from San Diego.

•  Join our MEETUP EVENT on Sunday, March 09, 2014 

  Tekserve

  119 West 23rd Street, New York, NY (map)

• 2pm - 4pm   

• LPPhysics, Inc. is carrying out an effort that could lead to the demonstration of a new source of energy that is safe, clean, unlimited and far cheaper than any existing energy source. We are using the plasma focus device, that reproduces in the lab plasma phenomena seen in space. We’ve achieved temperatures of 1.8 billion degrees and published the evidence in leading peer-reviewed journals. In addition, this is an effort that you can help in. LPP and the Focus Fusion Society are organizing to raise this spring, from small contributors, the money we need for the final year of research on our “Focus Fusion” approach to fusion energy. If we can demonstrate in their lab that this approach can produce more energy out than is put in—and we think we can—it will be an enormous step towards the goal of cheap clean energy. You can find out more at www.lpphysics.com. Come and find out how you can make fusion happen in the next five years!

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In a response to Stephen Hawking’s recent paper on the non-existence of black holes, LPP Chief Scientist Eric Lerner explains in this video how Einstein proved in 1939 that his general relativity theory proved black holes do NOT exist. The myth that relativity predicted black holes arose in the 1960's after Einstein's death. It originated among researchers studying quasars, vast explosions in space. Lerner’s research on how electromagnetic forces could explain much about quasars used the plasmoids produced in the dense plasma focus device as a model of the quasar process. This study in the 1980’s laid the theoretical foundations for LPP’s Focus Fusion research

References: 
1. Annals of Mathematics V. 40, no. 4, p. 922, October, 1939 
ON A STATIONARY SYSTEM WITH SPHERICAL SYMMETRY CONSISTING OF MANY GRAVITATING MASSES 
Albert Einstein 
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1...

2. Physical Review Letters, v. 56, no.5, p.455, September, 1939, 
ON CONTINUED GRAVITATIONAL CONTRACTION 
J. R. Oppneheimer and H. Snyder
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v56/...

3. University of Chicago Press, 1965
GRAVITATION THEORY AND GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE,
B.K. Harrison, K.S. Thorne, M. Wakano and J.A. Wheeler
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1965gtg...

4. Theoretical and Mathematical Physics 174(2) 253 262 (2013)
IMPOSSIBILITY OF GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE
A.A. Logunov and M.A. Mestvirishvili
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1...

5. Vintage Book 1992
THE BIG BANG NEVER HAPPENED
Eric J. Lerner
lpphysics.com

Download this report as a PDF here.  Join the discussion at the Focus Fusion Society forums here.

2013 Summary:

• LPP’s credibility jumped upwards as our Physics of Plasmas article was announced to be the most read paper of 2012 in our field’s leading journal and a team of prominent fusion scientists found our project worthy of “much higher investment.”

• Our team identified remaining impurities vaporized from electrodes as the barrier to higher plasmoid density and yield, and designed and ordered new tungsten electrodes to remove this barrier.

• We eliminated leaks in the chamber and reduced impurities, tripling plasmoid density, increasing fusion yield and producing a record ion beam power of 400 GW.

• We started organizing for crowdfunding efforts that will give LPP a second stream of funds, in addition to still-needed private investments.

In 2014:

We will carry out our first crowdfunding campaign this spring. Given adequate funding and supplier timeliness, we will start experiments in May with the tungsten electrodes, expecting a nearly 100-fold increase in plasmoid density and fusion yield. With these experiments we expect to confirm in the course of a few months the predicted operation of the axial field coil and of heavier mix gases. We will then proceed in the fall to test shorter electrodes, which will give higher current. Finally, we will move to begin tests with hydrogen-boron fuel.

In 2013, LPP’s credibility as leaders in the fusion field jumped upwards. The paper that we had published in 2012, demonstrating our confinement of 1.8-billion-degree ions, was announced in March 2013 to be the most-read paper of the year in Physics of Plasmas, the leading journal in our field of plasma physics. This showed objectively that our colleagues found our work of first-rate importance and interest. In addition, a committee of senior fusion researchers, led by Dr. Robert Hirsch, a former director of fusion research for the US Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Research and Development Agency, in December 2013 issued a report saying that our innovative research effort deserves “a much higher level of investment … based on their considerable progress to date.” The report concludes that, “In the committee’s view [LPP’s] approach to fusion power … is worthy of a considerable expansion of effort.”

While our progress in the laboratory was severely hindered by a shortage of funds, preventing us from advancing as rapidly as we could have otherwise, we did take significant strides forward. Our most important achievement was the identification of impurities in the plasma as the key barrier to higher density and yield, both in FF-1 and in plasma focus devices generally. These impurities are vaporized off the metal electrodes and disrupt the current filaments that are the vital first stage of the compression process. This leads to a decrease in compression and density at subsequent phases. We measured the levels of impurities and showed, in work that was presented at the ICPSA conference in Singapore in December, 2013, that this was the likely cause of the limits of fusion yield that has constrained other plasma focus research for decades.

Equally important, we identified the cure for these impurities: switching to tungsten electrodes, with a very high boiling point that allows them to resist vaporization far better than copper or silver, and by using a monolithic cathode that has no joints where sparks and vaporization can occur. Since the manufacture of such a large, complex tungsten piece can be performed by only a few suppliers in the world, the identification of such suppliers, getting estimates and testing of samples of their material took several months.

Despite the limits imposed by our copper, multi-piece electrodes, our efforts in the laboratory bore significant fruit. In the first few months of 2013, we reduced to insignificant levels persistent leaks that had introduced gaseous impurities into the plasma. Reductions in contact resistance further reduced, although it did not eliminate, impurities. That allowed us to achieve a three-fold increase in plasma density and a rise in fusion yield to 1/6th of a joule. In addition we achieved a leap in ion beam output to a record 400 GW.

Shortage of funds constrained our work by impeding the hiring of additional scientific staff and by imposing on us the need to seek the least expensive suppliers of the tungsten electrodes, which has delayed by months their acquisition. But we began to address the critical funding question in three ways, which we think will show large results in 2014.

First, we decided to initiate a crowdfunding effort. In crowdfunding, non-investment funds are sought on crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo from tens of thousands of people, each contributing on average only $20-50. We believe we can raise $1 million or more in this way. In preparation for this effort, we have been redesigning the LPP website and mobilizing volunteers to help us.

Second, we have enlarged our collaborations, which allow us to benefit without cost from the work of other researchers, as they benefit from ours. We signed an agreement with a simulation research group at Toyama University in Japan and solidified joint research with the Plasma Physics Research Center in Tehran, Iran. To aid these collaborations, we made available to other researchers our experimental database.

Third, we and other fusion researchers initiated in September an Open Letter on Fusion Funding, which proposes $300 million a year in new government funding for a broad range of ideas for fusion, specifically including aneutronic fusion. By the end of 2013, we had 50 scientists sign this open letter, which is intended for publication in major media outlets once we have 100 signatures. The aim is to begin an open debate in governments in the US, Europe and Japan over the direction of the fusion research effort. Such a debate is an essential prerequisite for actually allocating government funds for aneutronic fusion.

Regrettably, 2013 saw the passing of one greatly valued member of LPP’s research team, Dr. John Guillory, who died of cancer in July. John had helped us immeasurably with theoretical and simulation work and was an outstanding physicist and musician.

Our year-round laboratory team of Chief Scientist Eric Lerner, Laboratory Director Derek Shannon and Electrical Engineer Fred Van Roessel was ably assisted during the summer by undergraduate Research Associates Kyle Lindheimer and Arya Ghasejimedad, who helped to set up new instruments and in the design for our new electrodes.  We also had help from consultants Dr. Brian Bures and Dr. John Thompson.

In the meantime, Dr. Warwick Dumas continued ground-breaking work on our simulation and Chief Information Officer Ivy Karamitsos carried out the re-design of our website and preparations for mobilizing the crowdfunding volunteers. This work was also aided by the members of the Focus Fusion Society, especially their Board of Directors. Chief Financial Officer Aaron Blake, after years of very able effort for LPP, passed the baton to Bob Fitzgerald, who has already brought several new investors on board.

Our efforts in 2013 have already been greatly aided by volunteers, including two, Henning Burdack and Rudy Fritsch, from among our own investors. Henning put our database together and Rudy has given invaluable mechanical engineering support, including to the vital electrode re-design.

During 2013, the Board of Advisors continued to provide valuable guidance for the business side of LPP and innovative ideas of all sorts. It was BOA member Al Samuels who initiated the review of LPP’s work by the team of leading fusion scientists. Thanks to all!

Plans for 2014:

As in previous years, we emphasize that our plans for 2014 require adequate financing, which we will make every effort to obtain through a combination of investment and crowdfunding. They also depend on critical suppliers coming through on time and within specifications. Our main goal for this year remains to increase the density of the plasmoid, the tiny ball of plasma where reactions take place, the third and last condition needed to achieve net energy production. Since we won’t resume experimental testing until May, we don’t expect to complete the demonstration of scientific feasibility in 2014, but we do expect to take large steps towards that goal.

January-March:

We have already, as of January 10, ordered the new tungsten cathode and expect both cathode and anode will be in our hands by May 15. Eleven weeks will be needed to produce the tungsten blank for the cathode and another 6 weeks for the complex machining required. The anode, much simpler, will be ready before then. During this quarter, when we are not running the FF-1 device, we will be carrying out a number of important tasks, in addition to routine maintenance and improvements to our device and instruments.

1. We will be designing, with volunteer simulation help, improved connections between our switches and transmission plates, which we hope will boost peak current by around 30%, allowing us to achieve over 2 MA.

2. With our international collaborators, we will be working on plans to greatly reduce erosion when we shift from tungsten to beryllium electrodes later this year—see below. We’ll be locating suppliers for the beryllium electrodes as well and for the new equipment we will need for running with hydrogen-boron fuel.

3. We’ll be submitting a number of scientific papers showing in detail the conclusions about the plasma focus that we have outlined in conference presentations last year. We expect this will further increase our credibility among our peers and bring in new ideas and suggestions from them.

4. In response to questions from other scientists, we will issue some new studies on some of the engineering aspects of a working Focus Fusion generator.

5. We will put online our new, vastly improved website and produce many new educational videos and other materials to mobilize volunteers for our first crowdfunding effort.

April-June:

1. We will run our first crowdfunding effort in late March or April.

2. We’ll install our new tungsten electrode and perform experiments that we expect will

  a) Increase density about 100-fold to around 40 milligrams/cm³

  b) Increase yield about 100-fold to around 10 J

  c) Demonstrate the effect of the axial field coil

  d) Demonstrate the positive effects of mixing in somewhat heavier gases, such as nitrogen

July-September

1. Run expanded crowdfunding effort

2. Implement our improved electrical connections to demonstrate peak currents over 2 MA

3. Move to shorter electrodes

4. Increase density to over 0.1 grams/cm³

October-December

1. Move to beryllium electrodes, or at least a beryllium anode, which will be needed as x-ray emission increases so much that tungsten electrodes would be cracked by the heat absorbed. Beryllium is far more transparent to x-rays.

2. Demonstrate density over 1 gram/cm³

3. Demonstrate billion-Gauss magnetic fields

4. Demonstrate the quantum magnetic field effect with these billion-Gauss magnetic fields; show its ability to prevent plasmoid cooling caused by x-rays, making possible the net energy burning of pB11 fuel.

5. Install new equipment and begin running with pB11 mixes

Does nuclear fusion have to take forever, or does it just need focus?--A plasma focus, that is!

Sign up to pledge or volunteer in any way you'd like!

Does fusion take billions of dollars, or maybe less than a million?  Our inexpensive Focus Fusion-1 dense plasma focus already achieves billions of fusion reactions in microseconds, and thanks to you we might get to the trillions that would represent a world-changing breakthrough.  Join our crowdfunding campaign, as featured on SmartPlanet:

We're a small research lab trying to scientifically demonstrate the feasibility of a new source of cheap, clean energy, and we need your help!

We're planning a crowdfunding campaign to fund the final year of our feasibility study, and your pledges to donate or volunteer are the key to success.

Use this Google Doc to join our volunteer crowdfunding effort.  Accelerate nuclear fusion!  Help achieve fusion energy in five years rather than the fifty it might take if only the National Ignition Facility (NIF) or the Iter tokamak get support.

Your help could lead to the demonstration of a new source of energy--aneutronic fusion using the dense plasma focus, or what we call "Focus Fusion"--that is safe, clean, unlimited and far cheaper than any existing energy source. If we can demonstrate in our lab that Focus Fusion can produce more energy than it consumes—and we think we can—it will raise the hopes of every person on earth: their hopes to break the stranglehold of the oil and gas companies; that climate change can be stopped and reversed; that the technological means for wiping out global energy poverty without damaging the environment is within reach.

To sign up to pledge or volunteer in whatever way you prefer, please click here.

Please sign-up through this form and repost this call for volunteers wherever you can.

To share more technical background, in March 2012 we published what would become the most read paper of the year in the journal Physics of Plasmas, which confirmed that our patented, inexpensive (<$1M) Focus Fusion-1 dense plasma focus has achieved the highest energy magnetic confinement of a fusion fuel ever, for any device.  With this energy and confinement, we now have two of three criteria for scientific demonstration of net energy, and if we get the third (density) we will be on track to commercialize fusion energy within five years instead of fifty.

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This news item is part of LPP's December 30th, 2013 report--Download the full report in PDF format here.  Join the discussion of this news item at the Focus Fusion Society forums here. 

Tungsten samples pass another test

LPP’s plans for greatly increasing density and cutting impurities in the plasma depend on substituting tungsten electrodes for the present silver-plated copper ones. Since the tungsten electrodes are expensive and have a lead time of three months, LPP’s team wanted to ensure that the prospective supplier, Tungsten Heavy Powder ,could provide material that would easily withstand the condition in the FF-1 device. In the latest tests, an impendent testing company measured the impact strength of tungsten samples from the supplier. Since tungsten is a brittle material, LPP need to make sure that the tungsten could withstand the sudden mechanical stress that occurs when the magnetic fields in the device, generated by million-amp currents, push on the electrodes.

The two samples passed the test with flying colors, exhibiting an impact tight of 25 kJ/m², far above the impact energy expected in FF-1, even at its peak planed current of 2.8 MA. After one further test for tensile strength, LPP expects to order the tungsten electrodes in early January, and begin experiments with them in April, 2014.

This news item is part of LPP's December 30th, 2013 report--Download the full report in PDF format here.  Join the discussion of this news item at the Focus Fusion Society forums here.

Independent simulations support LPP predictions at Singapore conference

Ion beam generation is critical for the functioning of a plasma focus device and will be the main source of energy in a future fusion generator. LPP predicts that with a maximum design current of 2.8 MA, the FF-1 plasma focus device will produce a 66 kJ beam, exclusive of any additional energy from fusion reactions. Now leading simulation expert Dr. Sor Hoeh Saw of the Malaysia Institute for Plasma Focus Studies has presented simulation results that match LPP’s experiments and predictions.

The new results were presented Dec. 4 at the International Conference On Plasma Science and Applications in Singapore. Dr. Saw used a somewhat different theoretical model for the plasma focus than that developed by LPP. This model is derived from the overall simulation tool developed by Dr. Saw’s collaborator, Dr. Sing Lee, and is the most widely used simulation tool for the plasma focus devices. For a 1 MA (million amp) peak current, the Saw simulation predicts an ion beam energy of 3.3 kJ, somewhat better than, but relatively close to, the observed 2 kJ beam measured at LPP’s FF-1 device, when it had a 1 MA current. At a peak current of 2.8 MA, the Saw simulation predicts an ion beam of 90 kJ, again close to, but somewhat larger than, the LPP prediction of 66 kJ. For comparison, the FF-1 device has a maximum energy input of 100 kJ, so both models predict the conversion of most of the input energy into beam energy.

This is an important result, because if so much of the input energy is converted to beam energy, which can then be readily re-captured as electricity, an additional fusion yield of about 30-40 kJ will result in more energy out than in, not even counting the additional energy output in x-rays.

At the same conference, LPP’s Lerner presented the teams’ latest results on the influence of impurities in the plasma and the proposed solution with a monolithic tungsten cathode. Several researchers commented favorably on the analysis and LPP’s innovative proposal for a cathode connected to the electric circuit outside the vacuum chamber, to avoid arcing.

Former US Fusion Energy Chief, Senior Researchers Say Start-up’s Fusion Program Merits Much Higher Level of Investment

An independent scientific review indicates that an economical and clean source of fusion energy may soon become reality.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: Derek Shannon, Eric Lerner

Tel: 732-356-5900

E-mail: derek@lpphysics.com, eric@lpphysics.com

Dec. 10, 2013 - MIDDLESEX, N.J. -- In a major endorsement of the fusion energy research and development program of start-up Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP), a committee of senior fusion researchers, led by a former head of the US fusion program, has concluded that the innovative effort deserves “a much higher level of investment … based on their considerable progress to date.”  The report concludes that “In the committee’s view [LPP’s] approach to fusion power … is worthy of a considerable expansion of effort.”

Lawrenceville Plasma Physics has been developing an extremely low-cost approach to fusion power based on a device called the dense plasma focus (DPF). In contrast to the giant tokamak machines that have been the recipients of most fusion funding, a DPF can fit in a small room.  LPP’s final feasibility experiments and planned commercial generators will use hydrogen-boron fuel, which produces no radioactive waste and promises extremely economical clean energy.

The committee of researchers was led by Dr. Robert Hirsch, a former director of fusion research for the US Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Research and Development Agency. Other members of the committee were Dr. Stephen O. Dean, President of Fusion Power Associates and former director of fusion Magnetic Confinement Systems for the Department of Energy; Professor Gerald L. Kulcinski, Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Professor Dennis Papadopoulos, Professor of Physics, University of Maryland.  The committee was organized by Dr. Hirsch at the request of Mr. Alvin Samuels, an investor in LPP’s effort, to give an objective assessment of the program.  Neither Mr. Samuels nor LPP had any control over the committee’s conclusions.

The committee’s report pointed to the “innovative thinking and experimental results achieved thus far by Mr. (Eric J.) Lerner and his team at LPP.”  At the same time, the scientists did not minimize the remaining work that still needs to be done to experimentally validate the predictions of LPP’s theory of DPF functioning and lay the foundation for commercial fusion generators.  Commenting on the report, LPP’s President and Chief Scientist Lerner said, “We agree with the review committee that several of our predictions still need to be proved in the laboratory, which is what we intend to do in the near future.”

The LPP team has stated that, given adequate funding, they can demonstrate in a year or two the scientific feasibility of fusion energy with the DPF and hydrogen-boron fuel, a combination the team calls “Focus Fusion.”  They expect that a working prototype generator can then be developed in a few years more.

The review committee broadly supported that short-term timeframe, concluding: “While a number of near-term physics issues remain to be resolved, it is likely that with adequate financial support these matters could be addressed in a relatively short period of time, e.g. a few years.”  If these issues are addressed, “the committee does not see any fundamental roadblock to power system viability.”  In other words, a functioning, economical and clean new source of energy may soon become reality.

Download the full Review Committee Evaluation here.  While the report is marked proprietary to LPP, we encourage you to share it--Please consider our posting it here as written permission!

Join the discussion of this news release at the Focus Fusion Society.

Italian physicist analyses Focus Fusion, sees promise

This story is part of LPP's November 4th, 2013 newsletter, available in PDF format here.  Join the discussion at the Focus Fusion Society here.

In a third independent analysis of the prospects for pB11 (hydrogen-boron) fusion with the plasma focus device, University of Genoa researcher Andrea Di Vita reports in the European Journal of Physics that ignition of the fuel should be possible, if there is substantial reflection of x-ray energy back into the plasmoid. Earlier, separate analyses by LPP researchers and Iranian researchers in the Journal of Fusion Energy had concluded that ignition and net energy production would be possible even with no reflection of x-rays. Also, in agreement with LPP work, Di Vita concluded that the injection of angular momentum into the plasma (for example by an externally-applied axial magnetic field, as in FF-1) should aid in achieving ignition.

Di Vita’s report makes clear the reason for the somewhat differing conclusions, although all three analyses agree that pB11 with a plasma focus (what LPP has termed “Focus Fusion”) is a promising line of approach to fusion energy. As Di Vita emphasizes, his analysis is based on certain “empirical scaling laws” that he has derived from the literature. As Di Vita writes, “Admittedly, the relevan[ce] of available scaling laws to our problem is questionable, to say the least. First of all, they are just rule-of thumb descriptions...”  These rules-of-thumb scaling laws differ significantly from the theoretically-derived scaling laws used by LPP, laws which have been significantly confirmed by experiment. For example, Di Vita’s scaling laws do not predict the observed I⁵ scaling of fusion yield, where I is peak current, while the LPP scaling laws do. Similarly, Di Vita’s calculations predict a constant current in the plasmoid or hot spots of about 0.4 MA, while the LPP believes its calculations and theory more accurately predict increasing plasmoid current with increasing peak current.

Following a friendly exchange on different models with LPP’s Lerner, Di Vita offered to predict the results of FF-1’s upcoming experiments with tungsten electrodes. Stay tuned for the exciting outcome!

Laser experiment gives new visibility to pB11 fusion

This story is part of LPP's November 4th, 2013 newsletter, available in PDF format here.  Join the discussion at the Focus Fusion Society here.

While FF-1 is still some steps away from switching to the hydrogen-boron fuel combination known as pB11, other approaches are proving the reality of pB11 fusion, which produces no neutrons in the main reaction and no radioactive waste. In a report published in Nature Communications and summarized in an October news item, a French and American team of researchers announced that they had succeed in increasing the fusion yield in a laser-driven pB11 experiment about 100,000-fold from earlier experiments in 2009. While the yield of about 0.3 millijoules was small compared with the 400 J of laser energy delivered and even smaller compared with the energy needed to drive the lasers, it was a step towards demonstrating the potential for pB11 fusion energy, and the publication in Nature Communications gave some needed visibility to aneutronic fuels.

In the experiment at the École Polytechnique in France, a laser pulse of a few nanoseconds first created a plasma from a solid chunk of boron. Then a much shorter and more intense laser pulse of just a picosecond hit a thin foil sandwich of plastic, aluminum and gold. The interaction of the short laser pulse with the sandwich generated a huge electric field that accelerated a beam of protons from the hydrogen in the plastic toward the boron plasma. When the protons and the boron-11 nuclei (80% of the nuclei in the boron target) collided, fusion reactions occurred.  Instruments then observed the alpha particles (helium nuclei) produced by the reactions.

The density of the plasma in these experiments, at 10²² ions/cm³, was higher than plasma densities yet achieved in FF-1 using deuterium, but the duration of the reactions of one trillionth of a second (10^-12 s) was much shorter than the lifetime of FF-1 plasmoids, some 10 ns (10^-8 s) or so. The 100,000-fold leap in fusion yield, however, is not atypical of the jumps in output that can occur in fusion research.

Pinch timing measures impurities and sparks international project

This story is part of LPP's November 4th, 2013 newsletter, available in PDF format here.  Join the discussion at the Focus Fusion Society here.

Recent research at LPP has shown the great importance of eliminating impurities in the plasma in order to obtain higher densities and fusion yields. These impurities, created by vaporization of the electrode materials, add enough mass to the sheath of plasma that carries the current that it slows its travel down the electrodes and delays the time of the pinch. This pinch is where the current merges together to form the plasmoid. Recent calculations by LPP Chief Scientist Eric Lerner showed that this delay in pinch time, which is very easy to measure, could provide a simple estimate of the amount of impurities. Simply put, the more impurities present, the longer the time to the pinch for a given current and fill-gas pressure.

 A computer simulation of the run-down time using the model of Dr. Sing Lee, one of the pioneers of plasma focus research, is a good way to predict what the time to the pinch will be for a given mass of plasma. By adjusting the “fill pressure” in the model so that the predicted run-down time matches the observed time, we can determine the total mass in the plasma. If we then subtract the actual fill pressure of deuterium from the pressure in the model, we get a measure of the mass of impurities.

 For FF-1, this exercise indicates impurity mass that is 50-70% of the mass of the deuterium, comparable with estimates made from spectroscopy and other methods. Significantly, the difference between predicted and observed time-to-pinch started to occur back in March 2010, when the first evidence of the “early beam” phenomenon showed up. This early beam was later identified as the signal that part of the current was not merging into the plasmoid, greatly reducing density and fusion yield. In fact the “short pulses”, which we now understand were those without large impurities, had ten times the fusion yields of the “long pulses” which did have impurities.

What caused the impurities to suddenly turn up? At that time, improvements in switch functioning were increasing FF-1’s current. When current density (current per unit area) passed a critical threshold, around 2 MA/cm², electrode evaporation started to occur, releasing the impurities.

These measurements are so easy to do and to analyze that they can be done on any plasma focus device. Last month, Lerner circulated the proposal that other groups duplicate these measurements to the members of the International Center for Dense Magnetized Plasmas, an international group of plasma focus researchers. Initial reaction was very favorable, and new results should be emerging in the coming months. It will be very interesting to see if there is the same critical current density separating the machines with impurities from those without and if there is the same large difference in fusion yield.

Tungsten passes erosion, first thermal shock tests

This story is part of LPP's November 4th, 2013 newsletter, available in PDF format here.  Join the discussion at the Focus Fusion Society here.

New laboratory tests on the existing tungsten plate in FF-1’s cathode (outer electrode) have increased LPP researchers’ confidence that the planned all-tungsten electrodes will both cure the impurity problem and survive many shots. In the first test, the LPP team measured how much erosion had occurred on the tips of the tungsten teeth where the current starts to flow. These tips suffer from the highest erosion of any parts of the cathode, because of the high concentration of current to which they are exposed. The team compared enlargements of photographs of the tip of the teeth taken when the plate was first installed in November, 2012, with photographs taken this month, after some 340 shots had been fired.

As seen in Figure 1, the tip started out with a 400-micron radius curve. After the 340 shots, the curve remained the same, within the estimated 15-micron accuracy of our measurements. Since any erosion would have flattened the curve, the same way wear blunts a knife-edge, the erosion is estimated at 15 microns or less. Photos of several different teeth failed to show any measurable erosion. If erosion from the anode is approximately as great, an upper limit on total impurity from the tungsten amounts to only about one tungsten ion for every 8,000 deuterium ions, well within the limits that LPP has calculated will be acceptable and have no significant effect on the plasma’s properties. By contrast, the present silver-plated copper electrodes erode so rapidly that there is about one impurity ion for every 50-70 deuterium ions. So the tungsten electrode is expected to lead to a 100-fold drop in impurity levels.

Figure 1: At left, a tungsten tooth in November, 2012; at right, a tooth in October 2013

A second test was to see if the tungsten plate suffered small-scale microcracks due to the thermal shock of being heated suddenly by the plasma. To increase the total energy that the tungsten was exposed to, the LPP team attached four more capacitors to the FF-1 circuit, bringing it back up to the maximum of 12 capacitors. We fired four shots at 35 kV and then disassembled the electrodes. We observed no microcracking. Others’ research with tungsten has shown that microcracking either starts in the first few shots, or is postponed for several hundred shots. So this test is also encouraging. However, we will soon do another round of tests at 40 kV, close to the 45 kV maximum power of FF-1.

We have now received a bid on the manufacture of our tungsten electrodes, so we expect to have them in hand by February, 2014, assuming adequate finances.

Motherboard features LPP’s role in fusion race

This story is part of LPP's November 4th, 2013 newsletter, available in PDF format here.  Join the discussion at the Focus Fusion Society here.

LPP's Focus Fusion research has been featured in an article by Sam Roudman for Motherboard, which declares that "The Nuclear Fusion Arms Race is Underway."  Time's Newsfeed noted the story as some of the day's most fascinating news.  The article also featured input from NextBigFuture's Brian Wang, who has been consistently covering Focus Fusion and other innovative fusion approaches for many years:

Despite scant funds, the potential economics of LPP reactors make them more appealing than other approaches.

“If you have another clean way to produce [energy] at 2 to 10 cents per Kw/Hr, the world does not change,” says Brian Wang. In that range, the fusion energy would be cost competitive with other renewables, as [well] as fossil fuels.  But it would not be cheap enough to prevent investment in new capacity for dirty energy.  New coal plants and oil refineries would continue to be built. “Only [with] LPP, if they can get it down to .1 cent per Kw/Hr does the world change.”

Check out our Media section for other news coverage of Focus Fusion.

Open letter on fusion

We, the undersigned scientists, urge that the United States, the European Union and Japan fund a much broader fusion energy research effort, expanding the program to include a large number of promising devices and fusion fuels in order to maximize the chances of getting economical fusion power as soon as possible.

 The present international fusion effort is focused almost exclusively on a single device, the tokamak, and a single version of that device, the ITER experiment. We believe that near-exclusive focus is a mistake. We do not yet know if ITER will lead to an economical fusion generator. We do not yet know which of the many fusion devices now being researched will work, which will be fastest to achieve or which will produce the most economical energy. So a focus on a single experiment is not the surest and fastest way to fusion power.

There are now many fusion devices, both other approaches to tokamaks, and entirely different devices, funded primarily by private companies, universities or other governments, that have produced very promising results. All of them are either cheaper or faster to develop than ITER, or promise more economical power generation, or both.  In addition, there are fusion fuels other than the deuterium-tritium fuel to be used in ITER. Aneutronic fuels, such as hydrogen-boron, which produce no neutrons, could potentially produce energy cheaper than any existing energy source and have other advantages in safety and materials. In some ways these fuels are more challenging, but we do not yet know if they or DT fuels are the fastest overall route to commercial generators.

The benefits of achieving practical fusion power generation are immense. Such an energy source would eliminate the threat of climate change as well as the many environmental drawbacks of other energy sources. Fusion power could ultimately save trillions of dollars in energy and environmental costs. By contrast, an increase of fusion research funding to include alternative devices and fuels would cost only an additional $300 million per year—30 cents per year per person. This is a tiny amount of money considering the benefits.

We therefore strongly urge the US Congress and the European and Japanese parliaments to immediately hold hearings on the direction of the international  fusion program, looking at the wisdom of a much broader-based program. Such hearings could be the first step to legislation allocating an additional at least $300 million per year to research on alternative fusion approaches, devices and fuels.

To sign this letter, please send your name and institutional affiliation to us at lpp@lpphysics.com with a note saying you want to sign this letter (with “sign fusion petition” as the subject). When we have 100 signatures from scientists, we will seek to publish this letter prominently. If you are not a scientist and want to sign, please send us a note, too. We will have a separate list of non-scientist supporters.

Scientist Signers (institutions for identification only) :

Eric Lerner, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. (USA)

Pavel Kubes, Czech Technical University Prague

Alireza Talebitaher, National Technical University Singapore

Alain Bernard, French Atomic Commission (ret.)

Igor Garkusha, Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology

Helmut Schmidt, University of Stuttgart, (ret.)

Marek Sadowski, Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion (Poland)

Pawel Nadvowski, Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion (Poland)

Alexander Blagoev, Sofia University

Wlodzimier Stepniewski, Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion (Poland)

Ryazawd Miklaszewska, Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion (Poland)

Vyaeheslav Krayz, Kurchatov Institute, Moscow

Ondres Sila, Czech Technical University

Jiri Kortanek, Czech Technical University

Jakub Cikhardt, Czech Technical University

Balzhima Batobolotova, Czech Technical University

Karel Kolacek, Czech Institute of Plasma Physics

Tomas Lindén, Helsinki Institute of Physics

Ron Balsys, School of Engineering & Technology, Central Queensland University

Maurizio Samuelli, Italian National. Agency for New Technology

This update is part of the September 23rd, 2013 Focus Fusion progress report.  Download the full report in PDF format here, for the following additional updates:

• Open letter for fusion funding gains support
• LPP and FFS begin planning for crowdfunding effort
• Design of monolithic tungsten cathode finalized—to cure impurities
• LPP participates in Plasma 2013 conference, releases database

Join the discussion of this report on the Focus Fusion Society forums.

Spectra confirm metal impurities in FF-1 plasma

Our research team believes that the main problem impeding higher density and yields in LPP’s FF-1 device is metal impurities in the plasma. We have estimated the level of these impurities in various ways, but have not until now actually measured them. Now, thanks to a new optical-UV spectrometer from Ocean Optics, we have measured the impurities and confirmed what they are and their amounts. This important step forward was taken with the able help of summer Research Associate Kyle Lindheimer, a student at Penn State University, under the direction of LPP Lab Director Derek Shannon.

With an optical spectrum, elements can be identified by the characteristic wavelength of light they emit in concentrated “lines” that show up as peaks in the spectrum.

Figure 1.  In this spectrum, recorded on Sept. 11, 2013, the X-axis is the wavelength of light in nanometers while the Y-axis shows relative intensity. The tallest peaks are identified as those of deuterium, the main fill gas. The second largest peaks are silver, and the smallest ones are copper. While we need to and will obtain additional spectra, current calculations from the relative strength of these lines (area under the peaks) indicates that about 2% of the ions in our plasma are silver and perhaps 0.5% are copper. Since silver ions are 54 times as massive as deuterium ions, as much as half the total mass of the plasma may be silver. This is consistent with earlier simulations that showed the plasma sheath moving much slower than anticipated. This is also more than enough silver to disrupt the plasma filaments and prevent higher density plasmoids and more fusion yield. Our solution is to eliminate the silver and copper in the electrodes and replace them with tungsten.

Figure 2. Doing the twist: A recent photo of the pinch in our FF-1 device gives some of the clearest evidence yet for the kinking that forms the plasmoid (bright central spot). See the spiral-staircase (helical) patterns above and below the plasmoid, where the current filaments kink up.

In keeping with its policy for making public its scientific research, either through publication or patent applications, LPP has made publically available a complete data base of the experimental results from its FF-1 device from 2009 to mid-2013. The data base contains data from as many as ten instruments for each of more than 1800 shots. We invite scientists wanting to access this unprecedented body of data from a dense plasma focus device to contact us at data@lpphysics.com. We ask that all those downloading this database share their analyses with LPP, publish their results and of course cite our work accordingly.