From the other posting:
If anyone wants to follow more on this the main forum is here.

The current state of the research is that the navy funded a research team headed by Dr. Nebel from LANL and his team has completed(around August) experiments intended to confirm Dr. Bussard's findings. The Navy is currently evaluating those findings to decide if they will continue to research this approach. Dr. Nebel has had to remain tight lipped about what they're results have been but it sounds promising that the Navy will pursue for at least one more step, but that still has not been decided.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'clean, cheap, nuclear power' to 'clean, cheap, nuclear power, fusion, Robert, Bussard, Polywell, fusor' - edited by cybrbeast

>> ^fissionchips:
dupeof: http://www.videosift.com/video/Should-Google-Go-Nuclear
I've never used the dupeof command -- it transfers votes, but what about the comments?

I can't use it either with my star level, I think. Don't know about the comments.
But that really is a horribly tagged video, the tags don't even mention Bussard or Polywell.

>> ^Drachen_Jager:
The problem with this system is that it takes 1.2 units of energy to produce 1 unit of energy. In other words you have to put more energy into the system to power it than you actually get out the far end.
Of course Bussard was of a different opinion but it's worth noting that his is a minority opinion among physicists and it's likely that he was simply wrong.


Care to show some evidence to back that claim up ?

The problem with this system is that it takes 1.2 units of energy to produce 1 unit of energy. In other words you have to put more energy into the system to power it than you actually get out the far end.

Of course Bussard was of a different opinion but it's worth noting that his is a minority opinion among physicists and it's likely that he was simply wrong.

If anyone wants to follow more on this the main forum is here.

The current state of the research is that the navy funded a research team headed by Dr. Nebel from LANL and his team has completed experiments intended to confirm Dr. Bussard's findings. The Navy is currently evaluating those findings to decide if they will continue to research this approach. Dr. Nebel has had to remain tight lipped about what they're results have been but it sounds promising that the Navy will pursue for at least one more step, but that still has not been decided.

Also from Roberts personal wiki page:

"His work will continue as funding was arranged and received on August 21, 2007 and he was able to create a staff of physicists to continue."

At present, they have constructed and completed a series of tests of the "truncated box" and dodecahedron designs, and are awaiting to hear back from review panels before the USN will continue funding.

The USN have given them enough funds to operate for an indeterminate amount of time until the decision comes back to either keep it going, or kill the project.

Either way, I for one am glad that Dr. Bussard mannaged to get his work published (despite the current embargo that the USN has on EMC2's existing work as of his death), and that his claim that all the physics issues are solved, its only a matter of engineering and funding, creates a lot of hope for this.

Amazing find, thanks.

Dr. Robert Bussard has passed away, but his work lives on.

This is important. It's long, but it's important. If you have the time to listen to Dr. Robert Bussard you will be convinced about clean, cheap power. It's available and it's now. We can do this.

Here's the back-story from Google's page:

Google Tech Talks November 9, 2006

ABSTRACT This is not your father's fusion reactor! Forget everything you know about conventional ... all » 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 ignore the herd.