Email from Derek Shannon, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc.

He said it can be shared "far and wide".  Well I don't know about all that since this blog has but a small audience, but I will reprint it here as follows:

Howdy, fusion friends-


We're happy to send you the latest developments in LPP's Focus Fusion research effort. We encourage you to share these updates far and wide, or join the discussion of this newsletter at the Focus Fusion Society or on NextBigFuture. Your direct feedback is also always welcome. Jump directly to the full .PDF of the May report here, or scan the details below:

Plasmoid density triples, fusion energy rises with purer plasma - To demonstrate Focus Fusion as a feasible clean energy source, the tiny balls of ionized gas where fusion occurs need to get a lot denser. Fortunately, the latest improvements to LPP's FoFu-1 machine seem to be pushing the plasma in the right direction. More>>

Tracking down what's disrupting plasma filaments - During an experiment, a million amps of electric current cross FoFu-1's electrodes in a few millionths of a second. Boosting fusion yields requires this current to stay neatly organized in lightning-like filaments that will compress themselves to high density. So it's not a good thing when the telltale traces of these filaments seem to disappear close to where they started out on the electrodes. What's disrupting them, and will the next assembly of FoFu-1 fix it? More (pdf) >>

We've got a new paper for the upcoming "ICPIG" conference in Spain - You can read it, just reply to this email asking for it! In the meantime, get ICPIGgy with it>>

US Department of Commerce finds all in order with LPP-Iran Scientific “Fusion for Peace” Collaboration - Nothing to see here, just a chance for science, peace and clean energy ;-D (pdf) >>

We rendezvous with Chu as Congress sets eye on ITER costs - Yours truly (below left) recently had a chance to chat with the just departed Secretary of Energy (below right), while several Senators have asked the General Accountability Office to look into the costs of the ITER tokamak, the giant plasma donut starting many years of construction in the south of France. The GAO request could lead to the Senate hearings on fusion that we've been asking for! More (pdf) >>







Working for an unlimited clean energy future,
;-Derek and the LPPhysics team

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Update ( on post):

Comment:

It seems to me that the Federal government should get out of ITER and fund commercial development of the molten-salt reactor.  Given the extravagant expenditures of the government, this should help with spending.  However, if they won't fund commercial development of the molten-salt reactor, then they shouldn't change anything.  Otherwise, we could end up with nothing at all.

By the way, if they are going to fund fusion research, I think a few dollars for companies like Lawrenceville would be a good idea.