As of March, 2006, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics and the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission (CCHEN) have agreed to collaborate on a three-year experimental test of the “focus fusion” approach to fusion energy (see article on collaboration here). The project will use the Speed-2 plasma focus device at CCHEN’s Thermonuclear Plasma Laboratory in Santiago, Chile, one of the two largest plasma focus devices in the world.

Speed-2

The Speed-2 plasma focus device was first constructed in Düsseldorf, Germany. When the Düsseldorf team was about to dissolve due to retirements, Dr. Soto was able to obtain the device for the Chilean Thermonuclear Lab. The device is capable of achieving a peak current as high as 4 MA (million amperes) with a maximum charging voltage of 300kV and has routinely operated at 2.4 MA. By comparison, the range of current theoretically predicted to be optimal for focus fusion is 2.4-3 MA. When operating at 3 MA, the capacitor bank of Speed 2 produces nearly 700 GW of power for 0.4 microseconds. During that brief pulse it is producing about as much power as is produced by the entire electrical supply system of North America.

Dr. Soto’s lab not only uses Speed-2 but has as well developed a series of plasma focus devices ranging downward in size to the Nano-focus, whose electrodes are smaller than a pen.

™ & © 2006 Focusfusion.org and its Licensors. All Rights Reserved. 

For more information go to:  http://focusfusion.org