minitokamak

[AntonioLao]

Almost 30 years ago, Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse adult magazine invested $16 million into a private funding for magnetic fusion research called minitokamak. At the time, no private entrepreneurs would risk their own hard earned money for any large scale venture with long term returns. However, the late Robert Bussard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Bussard), fusion physicist and innovator, an assistant director of the U. S. fusion program between 1973-74 and then founder and chairman of the now defunct International Nuclear Energy System Co. (Inesco), with his design partner Bruno Coppi (maybe now at MIT) were able to sell Guccione the idea of a relatively cheap, compact, and disposable fusion device. Although Bussard believed he could produce a commercially viable minireactor in 10 years but without any guarantee, Guccione is always a true believer in fusion. He had more than just a passing interest for science in general and for fusion in particular. In 1979, he published Omni, a science magazine of facts and fictions. He believed fusion will solve the global energy and political problems and whoever has a successful reactor will literally control the world’s energy hungry economy. He became the silent partner of Inesco in March 1980. Failure to attract more investors after plans to go public, Inesco was insolvent in 1984. During interviews, 2 years later, Guccione still believed fusion is the ultimate source of energy for this planet; if it exists naturally inside the stars, eventually it can be recreated artificially by human intelligence. Reference: Robin Herman, Fusion: the Search for Endless Energy, Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Nonetheless, it is not the size of the reactor, what counts for a successful fusion (hot or cold) is the physics and the chemistry behind the machines. For cold fusion, a drop (~1 cc) of heavy water contains approximately 30 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 deuteron nuclei. To completely separate the protons and the neutrons of all these requires input energy of 240 billion calories. On the other hand, if (a very big “IF”) every pair of deuterons can be fused together the energy output for every drop of heavy water is approximately 2 trillion calories, more than enough to keep an average person with daily requirements of 4000 calories to remain active for a million years.