Steampunk fusion

[unixronin]

The latest Popular Science has an article on an tiny little private outfit in Vancouver Burnaby, BC that's trying to build a mechanical fusion reactor ... it uses an array of 200 precisely synchronized steam-driven pistons to create a contracting spherical shockwave in a ball of molten lead-lithium alloy, which is spinning fast enough to create a void in the center into which deuterium-tritium plasma is injected.  It's not continuous fusion — the machine is supposed to complete one fusion cycle per second.

At first, reading the article, I just thought, "Surely this can't work" (though some physicist PopSci talked to says that in principle there's no technical reason it couldn't work).  But then it hit me .... it's a steampunk fusion reactor.

Which would make it totally awesome if it DID work ....

Comments

[robbat2.livejournal.com]

What's the company? I'd like to check them out since they are in my neighbourhood.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

General Fusion. I brainfarted slightly when I typed Vancouver - the article says Burnaby BC, just off Government Street, "up the little spit of blacktop on Bonneville Place and across the parking lot from Shade-O-Matic blind manufacturers and wholesalers."

[robbat2.livejournal.com]

Ok, I know the spot. There's a Macstation in the same complex where I bought my previous laptop backpack since they were the last ones with stock. Just north of the Hwy there, is a reasonably hi-tech industrial park, so it's possible they are doing something real.

Looking at their webpage, their Management team is certiainly educated right:
http://www.generalfusion.com/management_team.php
Creo, Bell Labs, D-Wave
I've met Volker from that list, and he seemed on the level.