Hardric Labs in Massachusetts has reported to LPPFusion that its work on machining the new beryllium cathode (fig.4) is nearing completion and they expect to ship the finished piece in early March, only a few weeks behind their initial schedule. Since the beryllium anodes have already been received at the Middlesex NJ lab, we will…
Focus Fusion-1, LPPFusion’s experimental fusion device, resumed firing January 30 to start our final set of experiments with tungsten electrodes. Our initial results showed that we still need more work to reduce the tungsten oxides that have fed impurities into our plasma. We are now optimizing the microwave treatments that can strip oxygen off the…
It’s clear that the existence or non-existence of filaments—dense vortices of current and plasma—in the current sheet has a huge impact on the functioning of FF-1, because the filaments are the first stage of compressing the plasma. The disruption of the filaments is a key reason for lower-than-expected fusion yields in past experiments. Yet, while…
New observations over the past month have lent support to the hypotheses LPPFusion Chief Scientist Eric Lerner has put forward to explain the erosion of the tungsten electrodes in the last experiment. In turn, the strengthening of these hypotheses has concretized plans for the next experiment. First, at the ICDMP conference in Poland, Dr. Monika…
LPPFusion’s research team started to re-assemble our experimental fusion device, FF-1 at the beginning of December to prepare for new experiments with pure tungsten and a shorter electrode. The first step is to coat part of the 10-cm long tungsten anode with indium, a soft metal. The indium will be squeezed against narrow circular ridges…
In the same trip to Poland in October, Lerner also visited the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow. There he discussed with Dr. Marek Scholz and other researchers the Institute’s plans to initiate their own research into hydrogen-boron fusion using a plasma focus device. This is only the second…
Right on schedule, Rev Manufacturing delivered from California two new beryllium anodes to LPPFusion at the beginning of September. The anodes are carefully sealed (see Fig.3) and will remain so until we are ready to use them. Beryllium is vulnerable to reactions with humid air, so we will minimize both humidity and the time the…
In all scientific research, experiments and observations give rise to new theoretical concepts, which in turn lead to the design of more advanced experiments. LPPFusion has gone through such a cycle in the past few months, with new insights revising our plans for the next experiments. In August, the expected availability of beryllium anodes in…
The recently-completed set of experiments with LPPFusion’s FF-1 device, combined with discussions with colleagues at the International Center for Dense Magnetized Plasma (ICDMP) conference in Warsaw, have produced a greater understanding of the ways impurities are produced in our device and how to reduce them. LPPFusion’s research team has long identified heavy-metal impurities, produced by…
The next step beyond the new experiments with the existing tungsten electrodes is the installation of the beryllium anode, expected to arrive in September. This will be the first time that a beryllium electrode has been used in any plasma focus device, an idea covered by LPPFusion’s patents. While most work is still concentrated on…