3 ms·
The reason to use MCF (and why IEC can't work) is that it's okay if particles don't collide often if they are confined for sufficiently long. So what if the fa
by willis936 5y ago
The reason to use MCF (and why IEC can't work) is that it's okay if particles don't collide often if they are confined for sufficiently long. So what if the fast alpha doesn't collide? It's charged and thus well confined. It will transfer its energy to other particles eventually.
- PaulHoule 5y agoInertial confinement fusion works just fine if you are building a 1 megaton device driven by a fission bomb. You probably can't make it work if you're driving with a laser because the wallplug efficiency of a laser is terrible, but at least you can build a failing facility which is only huge as opposed to gargantuan. Real breakeven might be possible with heavy ion beam ignition but the minimum size facility to make an attempt is gargantuan.
- willis936 5y agoIEC is inertial electrostatic confinement: fusors and polywells. Conduction through the confinement/accelerator coils being immersed in the plasma reduces the confinement time lengths far too short for a reactor.