Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) are one week into their crowdfunding effort. They have raised over $38300.
LPP needs about 6500 more people to donate on average $25 each.
This is a nuclear fusion project where a bit of public funding will have a huge impact.
It is ten thousand times cheaper than the International Tokamak project. ITER costs billions and will still require decades and two more projects to possibly get to a commercial fusion reactor and those fusion reactors will be about fifteen story tall buildings the size of a football stadium.
This project could be proven for about $1-5 million with critical components and testing helped by another $162,000.
LPP needs to get their Tungsten electrode and then later switch to a berrylium electrode.
If successful with their research and then commercialization they will achieve commercial nuclear fusion at the cost of $400,000-1 million for a 5 megawatt generator that would produce power for about 0.3 cents per kwh instead of 6 cents per kwh for coal and natural gas. This can lead to commercial energy that is twenty times cheaper than natural gas or coal Last night coal mining killed another 238 274 people.
Energy that is twenty times cheaper will provide a massive pollution-free boost to the global economy. Instead of global 3% growth with not enough jobs it will mean 5+% growth for 60 years or more at least.
SuperCheap energy also means cheap clean water.
They have imaged the pinch which shows that much of the physics is as expected
Shot 9-09-10-02, 0.225 microsec before pinch
Right – Shot 9-15-10-07, magnified plasmoid at the pinch. We see the plasmoid on axis, which is about 150 microns across. The small dots are individual pixels, and do not represent actual fluctuations in intensity.
LPP’s mission is the development of a new environmentally safe, clean, cheap and unlimited energy source based on hydrogen-boron fusion and the dense plasma focus device, a combination we call Focus Fusion.
This work was initially funded by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is now backed by over forty private investors including the Abell Foundation of Baltimore. LPP’s patented technology and peer-reviewed science are guiding the design of this technology for this virtually unlimited source of clean energy that can be significantly cheaper than any other energy sources currently in use. Non-exclusive licenses to government agencies and manufacturing partners will aim to ensure rapid adoption of Focus Fusion generators as the primary source of electrical power worldwide.
If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.