Oxford University Scientific Society

May 14, 2014

Crowdfunding Fusion—Focus Fusion

as the Short Route to Fusion Power

Eric J. LernerChief Scientist, LPPFusion, Inc.

OverviewWhat would happen?Why Crowdfund it?

How can it be so small and cheap?How does it work?

Where are we in getting to fusion power?

What do we need to do to get there?

What Would HappenIf We had Cheap Clean Energy?

What if we could develop in the next five years a 5 MW energy source 10 times cheaper than

any now available that was safe and non-polluting?

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Economic Benefits

17% increase in real income for median industrialized country resident

44% increase in real income for median person in the world

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JOBS, Services and Infrastructure

$5 TRILLION per year not spent on energy

100-150 million new jobs globally

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Environmental Benefits

• End 7 million deaths per year from pollution by coal, diesel, gasoline

• End oil spills, mining devastation• Total recycling with plasma torch

• Money released to end deforestation, environmental clean-up

• No greenhouse gases• No radioactive waste

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Benefits for Peace

No more war to prop up the price of oilFission energy is obsolete—lock up the uranium mines

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Distributed Power• 5 MW generators, safe enough to put

in neighborhoods • far more reliability in disasters, • rapid deployment to towns and

villages throughout the world

Would You Chip In?

What if this new ideal energy source could be demonstrated to be scientifically feasible for only $1 million and

a prototype generator developed for only about $50 million?

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CROWD-funding for Fusion

Launched on Indiegogo May 6By June 15: Goal $200,000 for vital parts

Need $1 million, 12-18 months to scientific feasibility

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Why Crowd-funding For Fusion?

International fusion effort concentrated on single device, ITER

Over 50 scientists have signed an open letter urging broader approach

Only brave investors for fusion research—not enough

Benefits all, so crowdfunding asks all to contribute

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ITER TOKAMAK

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Dense Plasma Focus : small inexpensive device

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Dense Plasma Focus :

small inexpensive device

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FOCUS FUSION – 1, Experimental DEVICE

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Focus-Fusion-1 Experimental Device

12-CAPACITOR BANK

Stored energy 100kJ (vs 10 GJ for JET) Capacitor potential 45 kVCapacitance 75 mFPeak current 1.4-2.8 MA

Electrodes: 5 cm cathode, 2.8 cm anode

LPPFUSION.comSpiral GalaxyQuasars

Beam From Star Formation

REPRODUCING NATURAL INSTABILITIES

Solar Flares

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Key plasma parameters-- such as velocity--are scale-invariant

In Lab: 10 cm , msecSolar flare: 10,000 km, 100 sec

Galaxy: 30 kpc, 15 MySuper-cluster: 100 Mpc, 100Gy

The Cosmic Connection

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Force-Free Vortex Filaments

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How A DPF Device Works

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PLASMOID

8ns after pinch

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WHAT IS ANEUTRONIC FUSION? It’s a fusion using aneutronic fuel, ideally made of

hydrogen and boron, pB11, which produces no neutrons and thus no radioactive waste.

Aneutronic → No neutrons → No Radioactive waste

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ENERGY CAPTURE DEVICEX-rays, Ion Beams

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SAFE• NO neutrons from main reaction• NO high energy neutrons• NO radioactive waste—electrodes

contain less radioactivity than a roomful of people.

• Generator safe to service without protection 9 hours after turn-off

How Do we Reduce X-ray Cooling?

X-ray emission increases as z2

Boron 25 x as emissive as hydrogenHow do we avoid this?

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Reducing X-ray CoolingQuantum Magnetic Field Effect

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Quantum Magnetic Field Effect

QMEF reduces Te by >20xCuts X-ray by >4xAllows ignition of pB11BUT only with B>~3 GG

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WHERE ARE WE?Ion temperature— goal achieved —over

1.8 billion degrees, enough to ignite pB11

Confinement time— goal achieved 20 ns—more than 8 ns goal

Energy transfer to plasmoid—over 50% of goal

Density—must increase by 10,000

Ion energy of 160 keV

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Generated Interest

How Does it Get so Hot?Main Mechanism is Viscous Heating—

Haines, others

Ordered Motion Into Random Motion

Higher Densities, Electron Beam Wave Heating

Fusion ComparisonFusion Yield/Energy Input

Energy output per 1,000 J inputDT: DD:JET 2.2 J 0.01 JSarov DPF 0.2 J 0.00045 JNIF 0.03 JFF-1 DPF 0.0025

J

Why Does DPF Fusion Yield Plateau?

LPPHYSICS.COM

1.00E+02 1.00E+031.00E+06

1.00E+07

1.00E+08

1.00E+09

1.00E+10

1.00E+11

1.00E+12f(x) = NaN x^NaNR² = NaN

Buenos Aires(PFI)FF-1Power (FF-1)Frascati(1MJ)LimeilNTSCSwierkU of Illinois LPPStuttgart(HV)DarmstadtStuttgart(Poseidon)TAVADIL(PAEO)

Current I (kA)

Neu

tron

Yie

ld

Impurities from Electrode Vaporization

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34 35 36 37 38 39 40 410

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Charging voltage (kV)

Impu

rity

/D m

ass

rati

o

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Plasma 1/3 metal by mass, mostly Ag, 1% by number

Uneven impurity distribution causes asymmetric sheath, poor compression

Increase in collision rate with zeff4 prevents

magnetization of filaments, disrupts them

How Do ImpuritiesAffect Performance?

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What We Should See

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What We Actually See

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Why More Effect with Higher Current?

1) Arcing above 2 MA/cm2

2) Magnetization of filaments easier to disrupt

Magnetization depends on B/n. For B2/n constant, B/n declines with increasing B

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Monolithic Tungsten Anode

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Monolithic Cathode

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Steps To Increase Density

50x-- Achieve theoretical density—tungsten electrodes to eliminate impurity

10x-- Increase current to 2.8 MA

20x-- Better compression with heavier pB11

Getting the B Field• FF-1Now– 0.06 GG

With filaments—0.6 GGFull current—1.3 GGWith pB11—10 GG

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Needed: Beryllium electrodes

Tungsten is fine for impurity, but absorbs too many x-rays

Beryllium far more transparentBut costs-- (single unit)--$250,000

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Biggest Engineering Challenges

Heat Removal—Electrode Erosion• Sputtering may limit electrode lifetime

but with re-deposition a few weeks may be OK

• Anode will be heated by x-rays- key upper limiting factor in repetition rate

• Deposition of boron- key lower limit on repetition rate

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Why Has it Taken So Long?Massive Underfunding:

Tungsten too expensive

Too few large experiments

Under staffing slows progress

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Let Focus Fusion

emPOWERtheWORLD