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"the only commercial entity to achieve fusion so far" ...is this true? It's pretty trivial to achieve fusion (laughabe efficiency, but still fusion!) with a fe

by chaps 5y ago

"the only commercial entity to achieve fusion so far" ...is this true? It's pretty trivial to achieve fusion (laughabe efficiency, but still fusion!) with a few thousand dollars and a well-funded garage. Maybe "commercial entity whose goal is to generate positive-yield fusion" is what they mean..

zardo 5y ago
> Maybe "commercial entity whose goal is to generate positive-yield fusion" is what they mean.. That could be, they don't want to deal with neutron flux for no reason. It's definitely not true that no commercial entity has built and operated a chair. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969804300002153?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09698...
- zardo 5y ago
  (Too late to edit this, but chair got autocorrected from fusor)
  - DennisP 5y ago
    Well, at least it was still a true statement.
apendleton 5y ago
> Maybe "commercial entity whose goal is to generate positive-yield fusion" is what they mean.. Maybe, but that wouldn't be true either. Zap Energy has demonstrated neutron production in D-D reactions. I think Helion has, too (and possibly in D-T reactions as well?). Neither is particularly close to break-even, but then, neither are these people. It's a baffling claim.
- DennisP 5y ago
  Even LPPFusion has done it, with a tiny budget and a reactor the size of a coffee can.
hutzlibu 5y ago
"'s pretty trivial to achieve fusion (laughabe efficiency, but still fusion!) with a few thousand dollars and a well-funded garage." That still sounds like an interesting project, but I would not call it trivial. I googled a bit and found this: https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-to-build-a-usd1000-fusion-reactor-in-your-basement https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-to-build-a...
- pfdietz 5y ago
  C. L. Stong's "The Amateur Scientist" column in Scientific American described building a Van de Graaf accelerator capable of inducing fusion at a cost of $200 (in 1959). https://www.jstor.org/stable/24944895 https://www.jstor.org/stable/24944895

by chaps 5y ago

zardo 5y ago

> Maybe "commercial entity whose goal is to generate positive-yield fusion" is what they mean.. That could be, they don't want to deal with neutron flux for no reason. It's definitely not true that no commercial entity has built and operated a chair. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969804300002153?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09698...

zardo 5y ago
(Too late to edit this, but chair got autocorrected from fusor)
- DennisP 5y ago
  Well, at least it was still a true statement.

apendleton 5y ago

> Maybe "commercial entity whose goal is to generate positive-yield fusion" is what they mean.. Maybe, but that wouldn't be true either. Zap Energy has demonstrated neutron production in D-D reactions. I think Helion has, too (and possibly in D-T reactions as well?). Neither is particularly close to break-even, but then, neither are these people. It's a baffling claim.

DennisP 5y ago
Even LPPFusion has done it, with a tiny budget and a reactor the size of a coffee can.

hutzlibu 5y ago

"'s pretty trivial to achieve fusion (laughabe efficiency, but still fusion!) with a few thousand dollars and a well-funded garage." That still sounds like an interesting project, but I would not call it trivial. I googled a bit and found this: https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-to-build-a-usd1000-fusion-reactor-in-your-basement https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-to-build-a...

pfdietz 5y ago
C. L. Stong's "The Amateur Scientist" column in Scientific American described building a Van de Graaf accelerator capable of inducing fusion at a cost of $200 (in 1959). https://www.jstor.org/stable/24944895 https://www.jstor.org/stable/24944895