10 Tesla superconductors could enable Tokomak fusion to actually be affordable and workable in reasonable time

Tweet A new generation of 10 tesla uperconductors could make Tokomak style nuclear fusion reactors work. It could make them affordable, smaller, maintainable and remove the plasma problems. The development time could be greatly reduced from 50 years to 10 to 20 years. A new design would also switch to FLIBE molten salt for lower costs.

The overnight cost of a fission power plant is ~ $4/W ($2/W for China).
• First of kind fusion plants at least $10-20/W
• Which implies that developing fusion reactors at ~GWe scale requires 10-20 G$ “per try” e.g. ITER
• Chance of fusion development significantly improved if net thermal/electrical power produced at ~5-10 x smaller i.e. ~ 500 MW thermal

It would be good to have a more reasonable Tokomak fusion option.

I still like John Slough's fusion reactor designs more. He could have net gain this year or next year. It looks even cheaper and faster to develop.
The Lawrenceville Plasma Physics dense plasma focus fusion also seems to have chance to lower energy costs by ten times while Tokomaks are trying to not be two to ten times more expensive.
General fusion also seems more promising.

Also, any nuclear fusion option needs to be better than improved nuclear fission.
Molten salt nuclear fission looks to greatly reduce the waste and have improved costs.

Canadian David LeBlanc is developing the Integral Molten Salt Reactor, or IMSR. The goal is to commercialize the Terrestrial reactor by 2021. It should have initial costs of $3.5/W and could have costs that are $1/W.

DARPA's lightweight soft exoskeleton the Warrior Web is revealed

Tweet DARPA has released a video of a soldier carrying a 61-pound load while walking in a prototype DARPA Warrior Web system during an independent evaluation by the U.S. Army.

It is less like the hard exoskeleton of Iron man and more like the supersuit of the Pixar Incredibles.

Warrior Web seeks to create a soft, lightweight under-suit that would help reduce injuries and fatigue common for Soldiers, who often carry 100-pound loads for extended periods over rough terrain. DARPA envisions Warrior Web augmenting the work of Soldiers’ own muscles to significantly boost endurance, carrying capacity and overall warfighter effectiveness–all while using no more than 100 Watts of power.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory Human Research and Engineering Directorate (ARL HRED) is nearing completion of a five-month series of tests to evaluate multiple Warrior Web prototype devices. The testing evaluates how each prototype incorporates different technologies and approaches to reduce forces on the body, decrease fatigue, stabilize joints and help Soldiers to maintain a natural gait under a heavy load. The testing uses a multi-camera motion-capture system to determine any changes in gait or balance, a cardio-pulmonary exercise testing device to measure oxygen consumption and a variety of sensors to collect force, acceleration and muscle activity data.

The suit will actively assist muscle movement using tiny actuators in certain joints.

Saving lives and weaponization with 3D printing and other technology

Tweet 3D bioprinters were used to make a life saving splint to help a baby breath.

The image-based design and 3D biomaterial printing process can be adapted to build and reconstruct a number of tissue structures. Green and Hollister have already utilized the process to build and test patient specific ear and nose structures in pre-clinical models. In addition, the method has been used by Hollister with collaborators to rebuild bone structures (spine, craniofacial and long bone) in pre-clinical models.

3D printing is predicted to enable a new industrial revolution. The disruption in areas where 3D printing already works well – including furniture, cutlery, machine tools, car components, toys, garden equipment and so on – will be intense. Some retailers will be disintermediated and go bust, just as music stores have been destroyed by Apple’s iTunes.

Airbus has long term projects to print whole wings and other large components.

3D printers have been used to print working guns and DARPA weapons and vehicles using additive manufacturing.

Doctors use 3D bioprinter to create a splint for baby's blocked throat

Tweet The Youngstown, Ohio, baby turned blue again and again as his little airways collapsed and kept air from reaching his lungs. But doctors used a 3-D bioprinter to custom-make a splint that is holding his airway open and helping him breathe.

Now 19-month-old Kaiba Gionfriddo is “into everything”, says his mother, April Gionfriddo.

"Quite a few doctors said he had a good chance of not leaving the hospital alive," she adds.

Kaiba was born with a rare condition called tracheobronchomalacia. This deformity affects about one in 2,200 babies and causes the airways to be weak and prone to collapse. In tiny babies, it can look like asthma and it can take a while to diagnose.

Doctors at the University of Michigan bioprinted this splint, custom designed for Kaiba Giofriddo's trachea. It fits around the outside and supports the windpipe.

Green and Hollister were able to make the custom-designed, custom-fabricated device using high-resolution imaging and computer-aided design. The device was created directly from a CT scan of Kaiba's trachea/bronchus, integrating an image-based computer model with laser-based 3D printing to produce the splint. The image-based design and 3D biomaterial printing process can be adapted to build and reconstruct a number of tissue structures. Green and Hollister have already utilized the process to build and test patient specific ear and nose structures in pre-clinical models. In addition, the method has been used by Hollister with collaborators to rebuild bone structures (spine, craniofacial and long bone) in pre-clinical models.

General Fusion on track for Demonstration of Net Gain Equivalent Plasma Compression this year

Tweet There is a 19 page presentation from 2012 that updates the progress of General Fusion

General Fusion is trying to make affordable fusion power a reality.
• Founded in 2002, based in Vancouver, Canada
• Plan to demonstrate proof of physics DD equivalent “net gain” in 2013
• Plan to demonstrate the first fusion system capable of “net gain” 3 years after proof
• Validated by leading experts in fusion and industrial engineering
• Industrial and institutional partners
• $42.5M in venture capital, $6.3M in government support

General Fusion intends to build a three-meter-diameter steel sphere filled with spinning molten lead and lithium. Super-heated plasma would be injected into the vortex and then the outside of the sphere would be hit with 200 computer-synchronized pistons travelling 100 meters per second (200 mph) The resulting shock waves would compress the plasma and spark a fusion reaction for a few microseconds.

Carnival of Space 302

Tweet The Carnival of Space 302 is up at Cheap Astronomy

Dr. Paul Spudis has written Earth-Moon: A Watery “Double-Planet” on his Once and Future Moon weblog.

Tesla Repays $451 million Government loan ten years early and will get about $188 million this year selling Zero Emission credits

Tweet Tesla Motors announced that it has paid off the entire loan awarded to the company by the Department of Energy in 2010. In addition to payments made in 2012 and Q1 2013, today’s wire of almost half a billion dollars ($451.8M) repays the full loan facility with interest. Following this payment, Tesla will be the only American car company to have fully repaid the government for a Dept of Energy loan.

The loan payment was made today using a portion of the approximately $1 billion in funds raised in last week’s concurrent offerings of common stock and convertible senior notes. Elon Musk, Tesla’s Chief Executive Officer and cofounder, purchased $100 million of common equity, the least secure portion of the offering.

In the first quarter of 2013, Tesla sold nearly $68 million of the zero-emission credits to other automakers. That represented 12% of its overall revenue. Other automakers are buying the zero emissions credits are concerned they won't able to meet tough new environmental regulations requiring that more than 15% of sales in 11 states be zero-emissions vehicles by 2025. Adam Jonas, auto analyst with Morgan Stanley, who estimates that the credits will come to $188 million this year.