GoogleTalksArchive
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 7 months, 2012–2019
1:32:38 · 23K views · Aug 22, 2012
Robert Bussard's 2006 Google Tech Talk on inertial electrostatic confinement fusion, a compact approach he argued could be cheap and clean, using boron-hydrogen fuel without neutron radiation. It runs about 93 minutes and covers the physics, funding history and his proposed development path.
Recommended as an intense, insightful look at Bussard's IEC fusion work, frequently cited in fusion threads for his claim that it could be developed for about $200M.
7 comments from Hacker News
Bussard was a genius who couldn't get funding. Less than a year before he died of cancer, he asked Google for a paltry sum to continue his research, shortly after the government cut him off. I have wondered why Google didn't jump on this. Do you know? And now, ironically, the Navy, the very entity which tossed him out, has not only picked up his research, but has apparently gone all quiet about the results. Here's the video of his excellent (and, in retrospect, sad) presentation at Google. I say "sad" because it shows an intellectual giant, nearly on his deathbed, practically begging an Internet giant, for what was really the tiny amount he needed to continue with what had become his life's work. Anyway, it's an intense, fast-paced, insightful, and (likely) final public look into his mind, his work, and his character. [LINK] (Should Google Go Nuclear?) this video (archive copy) UPDATE: I found a good paper covering the above talk. It's a 25-page PDF, of less than 2MB, with color photos and charts from the video. [LINK]
I keep wondering why this talk doesn't get more traction? this video Published on Aug 22, 2012 Google Tech Talks November 9, 2006 ABSTRACT This is not your father's fusion reactor! Forget everything you know about conventional thinking on nuclear fusion: high-temperature plasmas, steam turbines, neutron radiation and even nuclear waste are a thing of the past. Goodbye thermonuclear fusion; hello inertial electrostatic confinement fusion (IEC), an old idea that's been made new. While the international community debates the fate of the politically-turmoiled $12 billion ITER (an experimental thermonuclear reactor), simple IEC reactors are being built as high-school science fair projects. Dr. Robert Bussard, former Asst. Director of the Atomic Energy Commission and founder of Energy Matter Conversion Corporation (EMC2), has spent 17 years perfecting IEC, a fusion process that converts hydrogen and boron directly into electricity producing helium as the only waste product. Most of this work was funded by the Department of Defense, the details of which have been under seal... until now. Dr. Bussard will discuss his recent results and details of this potentially world-altering technology, whose conception dates back as far as 1924, and even includes a reactor design by Philo T. Farnsworth (inventor of the scanning television). Can a 100 MW fusion reactor be built for less than Google's annual electricity bill? Come see what's possible when you think outside the thermonuclear box and ig
Dr. Bussard gave a very interesting talk on his design for "inertial electrostatic confinement" fusion reactor: this video
We convert fuel into people. As the author states, "It’s so blindingly obvious that I am embarrassed to have belabored the point as long as I have." To slow population growth anyway educate young women and provide them seed capital. A new person in the U.S. uses far more resources than a new person born in China or India, so the U.S. population growth has a far greater effect than they do despite their greater growth rate. (A good reason not to have children if you live in the U.S., as the author has chosen not to do.) In the final section titled "Oil-Clouded Crystal Ball" the author ignores fusion. The word "fusion" appears nowhere in the article. ------- EDIT: What's with the fusion hate y'all? First: Dr. Bussard on fusion: $200M and done: this video And THE SUN: A fusion reactor that will burn out your eyes from 150 Giga-meters away. We're going to have plenty of ergs for the foreseeable future. Heat pollution will be an issue before the deuterium runs out. I don't like to be vulgar in public but hating on fusion power is just stupid.
I believe he's referring to assertions made by Robert Bussard in this talk this video . Bussards comments on the DOE and funding tokomaks is toward the end iirc. Bussard is by no means a crank, he IS from a different era for sure. Edit; for those just discovering polywell fusion; Bremelstrung radiation is the primary reason why it may or may not be practicable.