Mr. Fusion Comes Closer

doktoromni writes "The first experimental, sonofusion-based, table-top fusion reactors are now being commercially sold. Although those reactors are not breakeven (yet, would say an optimist), they are by far much cheaper than other fusion approaches, like magnetic and inertial confinement. Also, they open the possibility of portable fusion reactors, along the lines of 'Back to the Future'..."

Comments

Proprietary technology?

[RobertB-DC]

Using proprietary technology, the IDI reactor is a stainless steel sphere filled with heavy water and, at its center, a small bubble of deuterium (heavy hydrogen). Sound waves cause the bubble, first to expand greatly, followed by its collapse to a fraction of its original size, all at the rate of thousands of times a second.

How, exactly, is this "proprietary technology" supposed to help with research into new fusion methods? I know they have to make money, but does the $250k price tag include a license that if the researcher finds an improvement that builds on the proprietary part, the improvement belongs to Impulse Devices?

Well, it's not as bad as some bozo patenting my DNA, I guess...

Re:so....

[deglr6328]

Yes it is way more powerful than a nuclear power plant. The lasers will produce over 500 terawatts of power, far more than the entire electrical generating capacity of the world. Though only for 5ns or so. And I dont think it's a monstrosity, a debacle maybe but not a monstrosity :o). It's actually quite a beautiful machine I think; it will compress and heat its tiny hydrogen fuel capsule to temperatures and densities greater than those in the core of the sun, igniting the plasma in a self sustaining reaction. While the capsule will reach ignition (where alpha particle heating of the plasma dominates) it will not reach breakeven due to the abysmally low ~2-3% efficiency of the Nd:glass lasers used to compress the pellet and the less than perfect laser\plasma energy coupling.

That said, I must comment on the article at hand. This company and its ceo "Mark Ludwig" seem to be pure BULLSHIT. The claims of Impulse Devices cross the line from speculative/specious and would be aptly described as fraudulent. Sonoluminescence has not yet conclusively been linked to fusion and most scientists remain highly skeptical of the claim that it has, as other posts have pointed out. Even if it IS real the rate of fusion reactions is so incredibly low it's just above the threshold of detection. The rate will have to be scaled up by trillions of times to attain anything even nearing ignition scale no one has a clue how to do this and he says this will happen in 5 years??! Yeah I'm sure we're all holding our breath Mark. Oh, and another thing, the reporting on this article is a joke, for starters they're using a photo of NOVA which they apparently don't even know was totally dismantled like 5 years ago....