From PESWiki

Focus Fusion

Focus Fusion is projected to be a safe, clean, easy, reliable energy solution that could provide electricity at a few tenths of a cent per kilowatt-hour.

Purports to be a far more feasible and profoundly less expensive approach to hot fusion, in contrast to what the international project (ITER) in France is pursuing. Lawrenceville Plasma Physics is currently researching and developing the Plasma Focus Device for hydrogen-boron nuclear fusion.

End product would be a 20 MW power plant the size of a gas station, which would cost between $200,000 and $300,000 to build. One person could operate two dozen such stations remotely.

Company needs $1.5 million to complete a "break even" prototype which could be done in 2-3 years, followed by $5 to $7 million to engineer a commercial prototype.

About

• Presentation preparation - preparing for funding consideration.

Official Websites

FocusFusion.org

• http://www.focusfusion.org - company website (non-profit, educational)
  • news
  • Focus Fusion Society website gets makeover - Foundation website advancing small-scale, non-radioactive, affordable hot-fusion technology has gotten a face lift. Site now supports forums, news, RSS feed and has quite a few updates. (Sept. 11, 2006)

LawrencevillePlasmaPhysics.com

• http://www.lawrencevilleplasmaphysics.com/ - Company corporate website. Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. founded in 1974.

Business Plan

• Lawrenceville Plasma Physics business plan (Revised January 2008)

Video

Google Tech Talks

1:04 hours

• Focus Fusion: The Fastest Route to Cheap, Clean Energy - Eric Lerner gives a presentation to Google Tech Talks. Technical description with animations. (Google Video; Oct. 3, 2007)
  • Focus Fusion On Google Tech Talks (Slashdot; Oct. 27, 2007)

ABSTRACT (from video posting)

To bring the whole of humanity up to the living standards of the developed world ... all requires a new source of energy that is clean, inexhaustible and much cheaper than any existing source -- fossil, nuclear, solar or wind. Fusion with hydrogen-boron fuel, which allows direct conversion of fusion energy to electricity, can be that source. It could cut energy costs more than ten-fold. It produces no radioactive waste and would be safe enough to situate in residential neighborhoods.

Of the three approaches to achieving hydrogen-boron fusion, focus fusion, using the dense plasma focus device, has experimentally achieved conditions that are closest to those needed for net power generation. It is the only approach that can utilize the high magnetic field effect, which reduces the cooling of plasma by x-rays, helping to achieve the multi-billion-degree temperatures needed for fusion. A currently-planned three-year, $2 million experiment, if funded, can demonstrate the scientific feasibility of focus fusion.

This presentation will review the history and status of focus fusion and briefly compare it to the two competing approaches, Field Reversed Configuration (recently funded by Paul Allen) and Inertial Electrostatic Confinement, championed by Dr. Robert Bussard, a recent Google Tech Talk speaker.

Attributes

• Clean
  • No emissions
  • No residual radiation
  • Few tenths of a cent per kilowatt-hour
  • Small footprint
  • Input fuel is readily available and barely used
  • 20 MW plant would cost around $200,000 to $300,000
• Applications
  • Ideal for larger applications
  • Suitable as a primary grid power source
  • Modular
  • Superior performance in use for thrust in space travel
  • With additional engineering, could be applied to smaller applications
• Ease of use
  • Start-up/shut-down time is near instantaneous
  • No water-steam-turbine cycle required
  • Direct to electricity
  • Very low maintenance
  • Very low operation personnel involvement
• Safe
  • Operators not exposed to radiation threat
  • No chance for explosion
  • No possibility of melt-down
  • Cannot be turned into a WMD
• Credibility
  • Initial funding came from NASA/JPL
  • Research accomplished at universities
  • Published in peer-reviewed journals
  • Receives highest recommendation from seasoned energy professional, Tom Valone (Video)

How it Works

• How the Theoretical Focus Fusion Reactor Works (PESN)

Comparison of Focus Fusion to the Tokamak

• Comparison of Focus Fusion to the Tokamak

Publications

• Electron, ion energy >100keV in a dense plasma (pdf) (arxiv.org)
• Prospects for P11B Fusion with the Dense Plasma Focus: New Results (pdf) - 25 pages, 6 figures. Invited presentation, 5th Symposium "Current Trends in International Fusion Research: A Review" March 24-28, 2003, Washington, D.C V.2 corrected typos. (arxiv.org)

Survey

• Focus Fusion Survey - Where would you rate Focus Fusion in terms of being an energy technology of promise?
• Results of 'Focus Fusion' survey by the New Energy Congress - First official action of NEC in regard to a specific technology. This is not to be construed as a full-fledge inspection of the technology, but only a preliminary opinion. (Posted Nov. 30, 2005)

In the News

• Focus Fusion in Discover magazine The June 2008 issue of Discover magazine has a very favorable, if brief, article on Focus Fusion in their Ideas section.

• Practical Fusion, or Just a Bubble? - An overview of various approaches to useful fusion, including sonofusion, Eric Lerner's Focus Fusion, the $10 billion international Tokamac project. (NY Times; Feb. 27, 2007)

• Alternative to Tokamak Fusion Reactor - Linked to PESN story, with comments. (Slashdot; Nov. 5, 2005)

• Focus Fusion poses competition to $10 billion Tokamak - Purports to be a far more feasible and profoundly less expensive approach to hot fusion, in contrast to what the international project (ITER) in France is pursuing. Lawrenceville Plasma Physics is currently researching and developing the Plasma Focus Device for hydrogen-boron nuclear fusion. (PESN; Nov. 2, 2005)

• Video Interview with Thomas Valone (wmv) - Sterling Allan's interview with Tom Valone at the ExtraOrdinary Technology conference in Salt Lake City, July 28-31, 2005. When asked "What energy technology looks most promising, that is not getting due attention", well-known and revered energy researcher and U.S. Patent reviewer, Tom Valone, Ph.D., answers: "Focus Fusion". (OSEN)
  

More Information

• Google > site: user.erols.com/iri/ "Focus Fusion" - Tom Valone's References to "Focus Fusion"

Contact

Lawrenceville Plasma Physics
and
Focus Fusion Society
11 Calvin Terrace
West Orange, NJ 07052

Eric J. Lerner <elerner@igc.org>

Comments

See Discussion page

Related Technologies

• http://www.iter.org/index.htm - ITER / Tokomak's official website.

• Electron Power Systems™ (EPS) - Toroid plasma technology that remains stable without magnetic confinement, by using background gas pressure for confinement instead, could provide clean, non-polluting energy technology at one-tenth the cost of present energy generation.
  

See also

NUCLEAR FOOTER

• Directory:Nuclear | PowerPedia:Nuclear power
• PowerPedia:Atoms
• PowerPedia:Transmutation
• Directory:Plasma

TYPES OF REACTORS

• Directory:Cold Fusion | PowerPedia:Cold Fusion | Site:LRP:Cold Fusion
  • Directory:JET Thermal Products
• Directory:Fusion
• Directory:Noble Gas Engines
• Directory:Thorium Reactors | PowerPedia:Thorium Reactors
• Directory:Resonant Nuclear Reactor
• Directory:BetaVoltaics
• PowerPedia:Nuclear fission

NUCLEAR WASTE

• Directory:Nuclear Remediation
• PowerPedia:Radioactive waste

SPECIFIC PROJECTS

• Directory:Focus Fusion
• OS:Heat Source Unit Nuclear Reactor
• Directory:Toshiba's Micro Nuclear Reactor
• Directory:Large Hadron Collider
• Directory:Hot Balls Chemical Nuclear Reaction
• Directory:Hortong Electron Orbit Energy Generator

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