Summary:
- LPP’s paper ranked #1 most- read in 2012 by the leading journal Physics of Plasmas
- Ion beam peak power jumps four-fold to almost 400 GW, a new record
- Compression improves, producing FF-1’s tiniest plasmoid, thanks to dramatic leak reduction
Recently published but not yet mentioned in monthly reports:
- New collaboration begins with Japanese simulation group
- Abell Foundation, LPP, Focus Fusion Society call for Senate hearings on US fusion program; letter-writing campaign begins
LPP’s 150-keV confinement breakthrough was the most-read article in 2012 among plasma physicists
On March 6, Physics of Plasmas, the leading international journal for fusion scientists, released a “Listing of the Most Read Articles in 2012 Published in Physics of Plasmas”. The number one article, most read out of the thousand published by the journal, was not from a giant national laboratory nor a large university group. No, it was “Fusion reactions from >150 keV ions in a dense plasma focus plasmoid”, from LPP’s small team: Eric J. Lerner, S. Krupakar Murali, Derek Shannon, Aaron Blake and Fred Van Roessel. The paper described the confinement in a tiny plasmoid of ions at a temperature of 1.8 billion ºC for tens of nanoseconds, representing two of three conditions needed to produce net energy from hydrogen-boron fusion. We had already known that this achievement was widely discussed among our fellow physicists. But this announcement shows that our peers considered this among the most interesting developments in the field during the past year, the one most worth their time to read. Better yet, with all those skeptical physicists reading our work, not one has sent us any criticism or correction. Many have offered congratulations and encouragement.
