Polyell fusion gets Obama funding

A whole 2 million bucks. But thats to scale, EMC2 Fusion Corp built and tested WB-7 during 2008 under a 1.8 million dollar contract. During the winter of 2008-2009 some DOD funding paid for the building of a new Ion gun, and remounting the magnets in a way that increases efficiency. To be known as WB-7.1 And now in Obamas budget we see:

pdf page 166 see Domestic Energy Supply/Distribution.

Plasma Fusion (Polywell) Demonstrate fusion plasma confinement system for shore and shipboard applications; Joint OSD/USN project. 2.0 [million]

The Navy wants Polywell as a replacement for shipboard fission nukes, 100,000 to a million times less radioactive, and at as little as 30 ft across for an entire plant (1200MW) using the PB-11 reaction. And in some circles, folks relish the idea of a compact 1200MW to power some laser or something, but thats a whole nother diary or 2 or 3.

Dr Bussards developement of the Polywell started in the 1980's with DARPA funding, and has continued after Dr Bussards passing, most recently, Navy funding, the Office of Naval Research under Dr Nebel, .

Thermonuclear fusion, maybe even Polywell fusion, will give us the solar system. Mars is 38 days, Titan in 76, using Dr Bussards QED fusion rocket theory.

Dr Nebel:
Dr. Robert Bussard was very interested in using this fusion technique to power spaceships.


While here on Earth electrical generating capacity will be switched from Coal & Fission nukes to Bussard Fusion Reactors at 2-5 cents per kilowatt hour. Liquid fuels will again be cheap and abundant in 2050, because they wont be needed. Blast furnaces in orbit or on the Moon turning out sections/modules/hallways/bedrooms/offices/skeletons for orbital cities and Mooncities. Other nasty polluting industrial development can be done off planet, man can colonize the solar system and clean up our Mother Earth, and truly be a space faring race.


Back to the here and now, Dr Nebel says he is hoping to have a net energy production product within six years.

And heres a plug for my IEC Fusion for DUmmies video:

My candidate "gets it". Bob Bremmington '08.

I'm going to use a fictitious presidential candidate to make a point. Bob Bremmington. Bremmington is for single payer no insurance company health insurance, hes for a fast but responsible withdrawal from Iraq. Bremmington will set a goal to get 25% of our electricty from Solar, and 25% from Wind by 2020. BRemmington supports media ownership break-up, Labor rights, education rights and a return to progressive taxation. Bremmington has never held elective office, let alone run for office before. I support Bob Bremmington for President in '08.

In a recent speach in Iowa Bremmington said this:

My Parents got thru the Depression with a progressive income tax, we won WW2 with a progressive income tax. The 12 million men & woman that served in the military in WW2 came home, the GI Bill sent vets to college, and they started families. This created the largest, most vigorous and the best educated middle class, in the history of the planet. Labor unions were at the zenith of their power, our eductaional institutions were the envy of the world, corporations made money, the wealthiest made money. The American Dream was born.

The top personal tax rate used to be 91%. Enter Ronald Reagan and the start of full spectrum warfare on the middle class. The opening salvo, the PATCO strike. Busting the Air Traffic Controllers union was the start of a multi front military style operation to drive wages down for all americans. Then we were told that Social Security was going broke, this represents the opening of a second front of the War on the Middle Class that resulted in the doubling of payroll taxes. And Reagan dropped the top tax rate to 28%.

A War on the Middle Class generally attacks the 3 pillars holding up the middle class. Progressive taxes, labor rights & education rights. Thomas Jefferson said, in an 1824 letter: "This degree of education would ... give us a body of yeomanry, too, of substantial information, well prepared to become a firm and steady support to the government." Jefferson started the University of Virginia with the intent to provide the yeomanry with a free education so as to be prepared to take part in the Government, the citizen legislators if you will.

This is warfare my friends, the Aristocracy has attacked us, and we must defend ourselves.

Bremmington goes on to win Iowa and New Hampshire, and looks to sew up the nomination in short order. Just before Super Tuesday CNN does a voter on the street bit. Voters are asked if they are bothered by Bremmingtons lack of experience.

Wolf Blitzer asks New Jersey resident Leslie Aspenwall about Bremmingtons lack of experience:

Bremmington gets it ! Hes the only one that gets it, he understands how much damage the Bush Administration has done to the world, and has a plan to fix things.

Why do I choose Bremmington for President ? He gets it. He sees things like I do. We both see our country as broken, and in need of being fixed. Now to be honest some of the other democratic candidates get it too, in some regards. Some have yrs in Congress or the diplomatic corp. But Bremmington to me, will be the ultimate citizen legislator. I think Thomas Jefferson may have some pertinent commentary, but I will leave it to you, to imagine what that might be.

Ive heard so much of this stuff, It makes me sick.


Clinton Takes Swipe At Obama's Experience, Says Nation Can't Afford "On-The-Job Training'

"There is one job we can't afford on-the-job training for -- our next president. That could be the costliest job training in history," Clinton said. "Every day spent learning the ropes is another day of rising costs, mounting deficits and growing anxiety for our families. And they cannot afford to keep waiting."

From Huffington

Obama jabs back at Bill on experience
.

"I remember what was said years ago by a candidate running for President." He said, “The same old experience is not relevant. You can have the right kind of experience and the wrong kind of experience."

"Well that candidate was Bill Clinton. And I think he was absolutely right."

From MSNBC

Today's Quote:Hillary's Lack Of Experience


"Honestly, in most respects, I don't know Hillary's experience. She's never run a city, she's never run a state. She's never run a business. She has never met a payroll. She has never been responsible for the safety and security of millions of people, much less even hundreds of people.
Rudy Giuliani on Hannity & Colmes

From On the Right

I think Obama and Hillary, Edwards & Kucinich and all the rest, all have pertinent experience. In general terms that not what I base my choice on.

I feel comfortable with Bremmington, I love his policy positions, hes a populist and a progressive. Bremmington gets it.

Kucinich gets it, he is right the first time. Edwards gets it, hes been fighting corporations, and Poverty. Dodd gets it, he stood up for We the People on that telecom immunity thing, Biden gets it, on foreign affairs, hes made some good calls recently. Hillary gets it, she knows Women's Rights Are Human Rights. The way I see it, all of the above are real good reasons to want to vote for somebody. They all have good resumes, but seriously, the way I see it, most of us will vote for someone who gets it.

Last week the New York Times reported that the Kearny Board of Education voted to 6 to 1 to settle their dispute. The settlement requires that Kearny teachers undergo Separation of Church & State training, and the Board of Education will issue a statement praising student Matt LaClair for raising the issue, while Matt LaClair will issue a statement commending the School Board.

On the right:Matt LaClair at a recent Hudson County DFA meeting.

In September of 2006 Matt LaClair recorded his teacher David Paszkiewicz proselytizing during class. Later in October, a meeting was held with the Principal, the teacher David Paszkiewicz, Matt and his father Paul LaClair in attendance. During the meeting Matt cited dozens of quotes from the teacher, Paszkiewicz then denied everything. Matt then produced Audio CD's he had burned of the "Sermonizing".

Later David Paszkiewicz publicly falsely portrayed the meeting with the Principal. If you get into trouble because you were recorded one time, what are the odds you would be recorded again ? Right, Matt had recorded the meeting with the Principal and the teacher. This second recording was publicly released proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Paszkiewicz lied. Twice.

In February, Matthew?s parents, Paul and Debra LaClair, filed court papers on their son?s behalf saying that they intended to sue the district for violating his First Amendment and civil rights. They faulted the district for not protecting Matthew from harassment by other students and sought public corrections to some of the statements the teacher made in class.

New York Times

I encourage folks to attend the Monday May 21st Meeting of the Kearny School Board at 7pm. The Board will announce the settlement. At past BOE meetings the LaClairs have not seen much support, I know they would appreciate seeing some friendly faces. You can find the address and directions here.

IEC Fusion, simple & elegant

Fusion is a simple and elegant idea. You smash 2 atoms together, they fuse into a smaller atom releasing energy. The difference in mass is released as energy according to Einstein's mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc². In simple terms the "fuel" needs to heated, put under great pressure and our 2 atoms need sufficient speed to fuse upon collision. For nearly 30 years the leading field of fusion research has been in Tokamak style devices. Tokamaks' provide pressure, heat and swirl the fuel in a donut shape.

One alternative to the Tokamak design that has gained attention during the last year, is Inertial Electrostatic Confinement or IEC Fusion. Recent research in IEC Fusion by Dr. Robert Bussard was described in the now famous google tech talk. IEC Fusion relies on speeding the fuel ions to collision, causing fusion. Test results in late 2005 with the WB6 device showed a very high output in relation to input, though a few magnitudes from break even.

Dr Bussard believes that if he scales up his one foot scale model to 9 foot that it will achieve net power, and be able to generate 100 mega watts of electricity. There are 2 scaling factors involved in this type of device: the power output scales as the 7th power of the size, and the power gain as the 5th power of the size. These scaling factors indicate a break even device would be about 6 foot square and that net power will be achieved with a 9 foot square device.

WB6 operating in November 2005.

Here's some eye candy for the geeks:

A 2 minute video showing a schematic flow of electrons & ions.

DR. Bussards website emc2fusion.org

IEC Fusion update..Tom Ligon: guest on "thespaceshow"

Tom Ligon sets up his demonstration IEC fusion machine, November 1998.


"SETI League photo, used by permission."
http://www.setileague.org/press/photouse.htm

Listen tonight @ 10pm eastern.

Tom Ligon will be will be the featured guest tonight on The Space Show.com

1. The Tuesday, May 8, 2007 Space Show from 7-8:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time welcomes Thomas Ligon to the show. Tom Ligon is a science fiction author and a former employee of Dr. Robert W. Bussard's Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation. Tom will discuss Dr. Bussard's unique method for producing fusion, called Inertial Electrodynamic Fusion. A prototype device was run successfully in late 2005, and could lead both to terrestrial powerplants and high performance space propulsion systems. Listeners can talk to Mr. Ligon or the host using toll free 1 (866) 687-7223, by sending e-mail during the program using dmlivings@yahoo.com, drspace@thespaceshow.com, thespaceshow@gmail.com, or chatting on AOL/ICQ/CompuServe Chat using the screen name “spaceshowchat.”

The Space Show.com

Please watch this video and pass this around:
IEC Fusion for Dummies video.
......please rate the video too, thanks.

Dr Bussard is the former Assistant Director of the US Atomic Energy Commission, he was the father of the US Fusion effort from the 1970's into the 1980's. As the Assistant Dir. of the AEC, Dr. Bussard went to Congress and pushed the fusion research programs in the 70's that developed the Tokamak design.

Dr Bussard now advocates a different design. For the last 11 years he has been working under US Navy contracts, building small test devices.



WB4 in 2003. Yes, low levels of fusion can be created in a very small device.



WB6 in 2005. WB6 was run in steady state operation for a number of tests before a short stopped testing.

At the end of 2005, the Navy did not renew his contract. Since then Dr Bussard has given many lectures including the (famous in fusion circles) google tech talk of 2006.

Google Video here

DR Bussard was awarded the International Academy of Science Outstanding technology of the Year Award for 2006.

Why is this important? World oil production peaked in 2005


Dr Bussard says he can build a proof of concept reactor by about 2011. The ITER reactor in Europe will be finished by 2013, and the concept may be ready for power generation by 2025. The ITER is slated to cost 13.3 billion. More importantly $3 million keeps Dr. Bussard working. The next step is build variations on the 3 foot square WB6, to test tweaks in the design, before building a full size model. DR Bussard envisions the full size reactor core to be about 9 foot square. This means the cores can be mass produced and trucked or shipped by rail to generation sites.

When the father of modern fusion tells you the Tokamak wont work, he bears listening to. Funny thing about fusion, it occurs naturally in a sphere (the SUN), just like Dr Bussards design. The ITER reactor will try to create fusion in a donut or torus, which doesn't happen in nature. Its been pointed out to me that that is an oversimplification, yes it is, but I like it none the less.

Heres an overview of Bussards recent work with some really cool pictures.

This will give one a good sense of how the program has advanced over the years, and what to look forward to. Word had gotten around earlier this month that Dr. Bussard had received more funding thru the US Navy. This apparently is not true, Tom Ligon set that rumor straight.

Dr. Bussard's website.

Are you going to be in Dallas at the end of May?

The 2007 International Space Development Conference


(ISDA) will be held, May 25th thru the 28th, in Dallas Texas. Tom Ligon will be speaking on Sunday, about IEC/Polywell fusion and the potential for these devices to power space flight. This event is sponsored by NASA.

If the Navy could power its fleet with fusion, they wouldn't need very much oil, and if the need for oil went down dramatically, we wouldn't need that many Navy ships to help invade oil rich nations.

Right ?

Private funding is needed, its so obvious that the Exxon military industrial complex doesn't even want to look at this anymore.

The table below is from this paper by DR. Bussard, the right hand column shows exhaust speed of a particular fuel (left hand column).

QED Direct plasma thrusters

Fuel --> Exhaust	(f) Mass conversion fraction	Exhaust speed m/s
p + 11B --> 3 4He	6.926 E13	11,800,000 m/s
p + 6Li --> 4He + 3He	5.472 E13
3He + 6Li --> 2 4He + p	1.277 E14
6Li + 6Li --> 3 4He (Combined)	1.596 E14	17,800,000 m/s
3He + 3He --> 4He + 2 p	2.059 E14	20,300,000 M/s
De + 3He --> 4He + p	3.505 E14	26,500,000 m/s

The p~b11 fuel does not result in radioactive waste, so it doesn't irradiate the reactor or its surroundings. The generated alph aprticles can directly generate electricity.

Saturn in under 3 months, Mars in a month. Who needs friggin EXXON?

Is Saudi Arabia stealing Iraqi oil via the IPSA ?

I recently became interested in the theory that the Iraqi Saudi pipeline (IPSA) was being used by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to pipe Iraqi crude to the KSA to be sold as Arabian light crude. I found a good summation here. I think its fair to say that somebody at a refinery would spot the chemical differences between Basrah light & Arabian light from the start, even though they are of similar gravity and sulfur content.

Chang-Tai Hsieh and Enrico Moretti, of the University of California, Berkeley,......
As they point out, Iraqi oil, such as Basra Light, is a close substitute for Arabian Light.

Sourced here.

Refiners in India, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan see Basrah Light as a good alternative to Asia’s mainstay imports such as Saudi Arabia’s Arab Light

Sourced here

Additionally there is a wonderful graphic on page 5 of the pdf found here .

I then thought, what would prevent the KSA from piping Iraqi crude to its own refineries for domestic use, and can I find anything on the web concerning the IPSA. The IPSA appeared to be closed according to a number of sources, including the US State Dept, and the US Energy Information Administration. The State Dept presentation is dated January 25th, 2006 and it seems to contradict a number of other sources dated earlier that suggest the KSA portion of the IPSA was converted to Natural gas. What I do find strange is the exact same sentence is found at different websites. This of course infers a single source in the viral sense of the internet, though I was not able to track down what I thought might be the initial source.

In June 2003, Thamir Ghadban said that he hoped Iraq would be able to use the IPSA line again. However, the Saudis have stated that they are not willing to do this, having converted the line to carry natural gas to the Red Sea industrial city of Yanbu for domestic use.

Sources: the EIA, Senator Lugar's website, and World News Network.

Only Gerald Butt @ Alexander's, could be quoted differently

Saudi Arabia has said the section of the pipeline within the kingdom is now being used to transport natural gas and has ruled out its re-use as a crude conduit from Iraq.

Much of Saudi Arabia's natural gas production seems to come from the eastern part of the country, the offshore fields in the Persian Gulf and the NG associated with the Ghawar oil field.











The IPSA pipeline was intended to be a way for Iraq to export oil via the Red Sea port of Mu'ajiz, near Yanbu, during the Iraqi Iranian War. Yandu & is a major industrial city utilizing NG for energy. Considering the Saudi push to expand domestic NG production and use, it seems to make sense KSA would use the IPSA to move NG west to the Red Sea. Except that the IPSA doesn't appear to be the route of choice. If the IPSA is being used for NG, it could be fed from the Trans Arabian/Jordon pipeline, though a connection bewteen the 2 would have to have been built.

In Oct of 2002 Saudi Arabia did complete a $4billion natural gas processing plant at Hawiyah, near the middle of the 164 mile long Ghawar oil field. In 2004 a natural gas processing plant was opened near Haradh, the southern tip of the Ghawar oil field. Natural gas production from these plants can free up significant quantities of crude for export.

In conclusion its not at all clear in my mind if the IPSA is being used, or what its being used for. With Iraqi oil production still below pre war levels one could argue that Iraqi oil is being pumped by the Bush Cheney faction in Iraq, to Saudi Arabia, for domestic use. As a favor to the Saudi's. On the other hand the Saudi effort to use NG domestically to free up crude for export could be argued as a model that fits into the assumed management scheme in the KSA, in light of declining crude reserves.

But why let an asset such as a pipeline sit unused for so long? I would offer that the IPSA is being used. Whether for stealing Iraqi crude, or to move the increased Saudi natural gas production, the IPSA is most likely being used.

EDIT: to include graph of KSA oil production



Note the increased oil production in the summer of '05. The Spike in the summer of '06 is new production coming online from the Haradh oil field. More important is the current overall trend of KSA production being in at least 8% decline.

Analysis: 2007 SS report: "We're good past 2085"

I'm sure you've seen the headlines recently, that Social Security will be broke by 2041. I also remember similar headlines after the Social Security Trustees report came out in 2004, I found the report online and read it. I realized a number of things about the doomsday year of 2042.

1) The 2004 Social Security Trustees report was predicated on not counting interest on the roughly 12 trillion in the various trust funds, represented by bonds.
2) The 2004 Social Security Trustees report relied on 1.8% growth in the GDP. To my eye 1.8% growth in GDP represents a "Mad Max scenario", an economic collapse on the order of the "Great Republican Depression" of the 1930's.
3) Apparently the 2004 Social Security Trustees report factored in the Boomer generation retiring and drawing checks from the system, but did not factor in what happens when the Boomers died.

My gut level assessment (not based on any actual economic knowledge) of the 2004 Social Security Trustees report was that assuming 3.6% growth in GDP, Social Security would be fine until 2062. Since it's not likely that many Boomers would be around in 2062 to collect checks, the big drawdown of funds would be over. The 2004 Social Security Trustees report was easy to navigate, easy to find the fine print. About an hour of poking around got me to all the details I sought. The 2007 Social Security Trustees report is a wee bit more complicated and not so easy to navigate. Never the less, I think I found the dirt in the details.

The 2007 Social Security Trustees Summary makes a most compelling statement:

Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years in various ways, including an immediate increase of 16 percent in payroll tax revenues or an immediate reduction in benefits of 13 percent or some combination of the two.

And what data was used to come to this assertation? I found it organized here. Many of the interesting titles linked to huge charts that quite frankly were overwhelming. But slowly a picture of the basic assumptions behind the doomsayers words became clear. Looking at the "Principal Economic Assumptions" I noted that the Trustees had developed 3 scenarios, Intermediate cost, low cost & high cost. But which scenario was the one the trustees relied upon for their date of 2041?

Additional Economic Factors and Selected Economic Variables lead to some interesting information which could lead one to think the Trustees used some faulted economic assumtions, but these tables did not present to me, a smoking gun. I found what I was looking for, titled Estimated Trust Fund Ratios.

On the Estimated Trust Fund Ratios table I found where Social Security went broke in 2041. This was listed under the "intermediate" scenario. Looking at the "High Cost" scenario made things look worse, Social Security would go broke in 2030. While looking at the "Low cost" scenario showed Social Security would still be solvent in 2085.

I wish I had that audio clip from the Rachel Maddow show, the one where the prospecter shouts "Eureka"!

It is interesting to note that under Additional Economic Factors the "intermediate" scenario assumes GDP growth of 2% or under after 2020. While the "Low Cost" scenario assumed GDP growth of 2.5% to 3% in the outgoing years. IIRC the US has averaged 3% or 3.5% GDP growth over the last 100 years. While during the Clinton years the US saw growth in GDP between 2.5% and 4.4%.

If we don't get hold of our government, our future, this could get seriously bad. World oil production peaked in May of 2005, the global fish catch has peaked, all the easy to mine iron ore in the US was gone by by 1971, global warming needs to be reversed. If we don't provide solutions to these problems in the coming decade, it may be too late.