Technology of the Year Award

The Technology of the Year Award for 2006 was presented to Dr. Bussard for his innovative work in a new fusion device.

The fusion process recommended by Dr. Bussard takes boron-11 and fuses a proton to it, producing, in its excited state, a carbon-12 atom. This excited carbon-12 atom decays to beryllium-8 and helium-4. Beryllium-8 very quickly (in 10-13 s) decays into two more helium-4 atoms. This is the only nuclear-energy releasing process in the whole world that releases fusion energy and three helium atoms — and no neutrons. This reaction is completely radiation free.
http://www.science.edu/TechoftheYear/TechoftheYear.htm

Inertial-Electrodynamic Fusion (IEF) Device
Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation (EMC2)

THE TECHNOLOGY

Dr. Bussard and his team at Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation, after close to 20 years of hard work, have developed a revolutionary radiation-free fusion process that could change the world as we know it today.

Fusion is the energy that powers everything in the universe. The sun’s energy comes from fusion. Alternatively, fission is the process whereby heavy atoms, which are nearly unstable, are split into two radioactive atoms. Fusion, on the other hand, is when two light atoms merge.

The ultimate fuels for fusion include hydrogen and other light atoms such as lithium, boron, and helium isotopes. Some of these reactions are radiation free, others are not.

The fusion process recommended by Dr. Bussard takes boron-11 and fuses a proton to it, producing, in its excited state, a carbon-12 atom. This excited carbon-12 atom decays to beryllium-8 and helium-4. Beryllium-8 very quickly (in 10-13 s) decays into two more helium-4 atoms. This is the only nuclear-energy releasing process in the whole world that releases fusion energy and three helium atoms — and no neutrons. This reaction is completely radiation free.

The most commonly studied fusion process today is the reaction that occurs between deuterium and tritium, the so-called DT reaction, that produces helium and a radioactive neutron. Various magnetic confinement vessels have been designed and developed over the years to contain the high-energy DT fusion reaction. The Tokamak is one such magnetic confinement vessel, 30 m across by 110 feet tall.

The majority of fusion processes being investigated today are very expensive, costing billions of U.S. dollars; require giant machines; and offer no predictability. Nonetheless, we know that fusion works because every star is a fusion reactor. The fusion reactors of the stars and the sun are held together by a direct force field. This works very well and efficiently — this force field is gravity.

Gravitational forces between particles draw them directly together. Only one other force is known to be like gravity: this is the electric field force or “coulomb” force, between electrically-charged particles.

Charged particles of opposite signs attract each other with direct forces; charged particles in electric fields feel forces directly along field gradients. Thus, fusion fuel plasmas could be held together efficiently by electric forces and electric fields. This is called “Electric Fusion”.

Dr. Bussard was not the first to try to create such a field. One notable technique utilized a spherical screen grid that was biased to a positive potential, thereby attracting electrons through the screen, producing a negative potential well. As the electrons passed through the screen, they slowed down as their kinetic energy was transformed into potential energy in the potential well, and ions could then be dropped into it at the edge, fall down, and be recirculated back and forth. Any particles not reacting went back into the well. The only problem with this method was that the grid was not transparent. Because of the high interception rate on the grid, essentially all of the energy put into the electron acceleration went into the grid. Energy was lost and the grid melted. This technique just didn’t work.

Dr. Bussard’s invention, however, removes the fore-mentioned grid and replaces it with a magnetic field. It is known that magnetic fields do not contain neutral plasmas very well (as illustrated in the case of the Tokamak). Magnetic fields, however, contain electrons very easily because electrons are extremely light.

The basic approach of electric fusion is the following:

* Quasi-spherical magnetic fields trap injected energetic electrons to form spherical negative potential well.

* Fusion ions trapped in this spherical well focused through central region oscillate across the “core” until they are reacted.

* The system acts like a spherical colliding beam device.

* Fuel gas is input at the potential well edge. Fusion products escape to system walls.

* Ion fusion power generation occurs in a central region.

* Electron drive power is decoupled from the fusion process.

* Power balance is set by injected electron losses; the main losses occurring through the magnetic cusps and to walls.

* Magnetic confinement of electrons is critical.
o “Wiffle Ball” (WB) effect insures cusp sealing.

* Magnetic insulation of the walls is important.

o “Magrid” (MG) effect reduces power and raises gain.

In 1994, Dr. Bussard successfully demonstrated a wiffle ball, achieving a beta-1 condition. In 2005, he was able to magnetically insulate the electrons from the walls via his “Magrid” transporter.

Early prototypes experienced some losses because the original coils touched one another, resulting in intersecting magnetic fields. This made the magnetic field lines run into the metal vessel walls resulting in electron losses. Dr. Bussard realized that all the coil containers had to be conformal to the magnetic fields they produced. If he utilized circular torroidal coils spaced at the corners, the magnetic fields could be allowed to go out between the coils. Using such a device, that offered both the wiffle ball effect and the magrid transporter, Dr. Bussard was able to achieve 1×109 fusions/second for .25 milliseconds.

In summary, Dr. Bussard’s Inertial Electrostatic Fusion offers

* Small, efficient power reactors, 1-3% the size of current magnetic confinement reactors.

* Clean, radiation-free energy utilizing p B-11.

* Relatively simple engineering with commercial viability in 6-10 years.

* Low cost ($150-200 million from program inception to demonstration of clean power.)

THE INVENTOR

Dr. Robert W. Bussard is an American physicist working primarily in nuclear fusion energy research. Bussard received his PhD from Princeton. He is currently functioning as co-founder and director of Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation. He is the former Assistant Director to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and has held prominent positions at Los Alamos National Laboratories, Oakridge Labs, and TRW Systems.

Besides developing this year’s winning technology, Dr. Bussard is also known for conceiving the Bussard ramjet, an interstellar spacecraft powered by hydrogen fusion using hydrogen collected from the interstellar gas utilizing a magnetic field.


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