In case you are wondering, here's the line on the anode we were talking about—it's on the right. It disappeared in the next few shots. We don't know what caused it.
The image is the raw data from our Far Time of Flight detector (FTF) which shows the arrival of the X-ray peak (small peak at left) and the slower neutrons (big peak at right). Vertical scale is volts and horizontal is time in ns (billionths of a second). From shot 6, June 18. The height of the big peak at right is one way we know we have more fusion yield, as we are now working with deuterium, which produces neutrons from fusion reactions.
We tracked them down and fixed them. Also, the appearance of the anode continues to evolve from shot to shot. After one shot, a horizontal line appeared on part of the anode, but then disappeared a couple of shots later. For symmetry the anode has to settle down to the same appearance—and thus the same smoothness—everywhere. This will take some time.
We’re now over 30 shots and we have tripled fusion yield over last week. Not time yet to break out champagne, as we are still a factor of 4 short of our own record yield of ¼ joule. But going in the right direction. We’ve scanned from low to high fill pressure and we have found the sweet spot for now. Improvements are still needed. For one thing, #FF2B was making too much noise when it fired—from shorts or arcs somewhere outside the vacuum chamber.
Beryllium experiment started! In the first week, we fired 13 shots, starting June 4. As anticipated, first shot vaporized thin beryllium oxide layer, creating dust. Good news is that the dust is steadily being cleared off, with very little evidence of additional erosion, in contrast to heavy early erosion with tungsten. We started to get measurable fusion on third shot and fusion yield has gone up ten-fold since then. However, not close to a record yet.
This slide rule belonged to Melvin Lerner, the father of LPPFusion Chief Scientist Eric Lerner. Melvin Lerner was a leading analytical chemist and scientific administrator, for over 20 years Director of Technical Services for the US Customs Bureau. He was a pioneer in the chemical analysis of marijuana and developed new techniques in statistical analysis and sampling.
On June 4, LPPFusion Director of Communications Ivy Karamitsos officially renamed our device “Focus Fusion 2B” or “FF-2B” for short. It is “2B” for its beryllium electrodes and boron fuel (to be used later this year) but also because it is “focus fusion to be”. Traditional renaming of people, such as knighting, used ancestral obsolete weapons (King Arthur’s sword for example). So our peaceful scientific ceremony used an ancestral obsolete scientific calculator—a slide rule!
"Could the Green New Deal Work? The Necessity of Fusion" is available on YouTube. Thanks to David Szalyga for uploading the recording so quickly!
What does it matter what #M87 really is? In part 5 of the “Is it Really a Black Hole Series”, LPPFusion Chief Scientist Eric J. Lerner points out that discoveries in astrophysics can have profound impacts here on earth.
LPPFusion President and Chief Scientist Eric J. Lerner will present proposals for “A Faster Route to Fusion” at the Fusion Energy Symposium, a hearing sponsored by NJ State Senator Joe Pennachio (R-26) at the State House Annex in Trenton NJ.
In part 4, LPPFusion Chief Scientist Eric J. Lerner explains that most astrophysicists don’t consider the possibility that condensed objects can be plasmoids because they are using a wrong approximation to calculate plasma behavior.
Ivy will be presenting at a Mensa event on May 30 to explain why a successful implementation of the Green New Deal requires fusion energy. Eric will be there as well to answer technical questions.
In part 3 of the “Is it Really a Black Hole Series”, LPPFusion Chief Scientist Eric J. Lerner shows that the #M87 image could have been created by a plasmoid, not an “almost black hole”. A plasmoid is a magnetically-confined plasma object.
In part 2 of “Is it Really a Black Hole Series”, LPPFusion Chief Scientist Eric J. Lerner explains that any condensed object like the one at the center of #M87 must have lost most of its angular momentum for it to collapse in radius.
We've installed the beryllium anode on the machine.
LPPF’s mission is to provide environmentally safe, clean, cheap and unlimited energy for everyone by developing Focus Fusion technology.
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