Is it time to put pulsed power fusion to bed? Given the success of NIF and the inability of the Z machine to get anywhere near that level of performance, should the NNSA officially announce that fusion will no longer be pursued on pulsed power machines? I understand there is great difficulty in scaling to a larger Z machine due to power flow losses. The future designs presented by Sandia are also highly impractical, relying on hundreds of thousands of capacitors. I think it’s over for pulsed power fusion efforts
3 comments:
“The success of NIF…”. You keep using that phrase. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Meanwhile, pulsed power machines with millions of components are being built. Ever hear of Scorpious?
Scorpius is for x-ray radiography. I’m talking about multi-billion $ pulsed power machines for fusion. Different technology, different application.
NIF was successful in achieving ignition. Z has not been successful in that sense,
NIF was extremely successful in redefining ignition. One could claim a similar degree of “success” with any of a dozen fusion producing mechanisms.
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