Piston-Powered Nuclear Fusion

katarn writes "General Fusion is a startup proposing they can create commercially viable fusion using acoustic shock waves, triggered by 220 precisely controlled pneumatic pistons. Their approach is based on a US Naval research concept called 'Linus' and old research done by General Atomics. They feel we now have the high-speed, digital processing capable of pulling off this feat, where decades ago the technology was not available. I think we can hold off on the 'vaporware' claims for a bit; everyone is aware of the horrible track record for turning fusion concepts into reality, but they don't claim to be the first with the idea or that there are not substantial challenges in the way. If nothing else, it is a fascinating concept." Los Alamos National Laboratory has further details on this type of fusion, and longtime LANL researcher Ronald Kirkpatrick did an external assessment (PDF) of General Fusion's plans. Popular Science had a lengthy story about the company a while back. The reason they're back in the headlines now is that they've secured enough funding to begin work on a prototype reactor.

Comments

Re:There is reason to be concerned.

[JesseMcDonald]

Government-funded research is just one form of funding-by-monopolist, which has already been covered. The only difference is that in the government's case the monopoly is established and maintained through the active and continual application of aggressive coercion, whereas most private monopolies are either natural--meaning the market will only support a single provider--or merely the result of good business instincts.