Eric Lerner's new Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) device, Focus Fusion 1, was test fired for its first "shots" on October 15th, and achieved "pinch" -- a dense plasmoid vortex -- on just its second test shot, significantly ahead of schedule. For a brief instant, over 100 Gigawatts of power was concentrated in a region smaller than the point of a pin.
The experiments are intended to investigate new techniques which aim to make a simple, cheap device of this type capable of achieving the break-even point in controlled thermonuclear fusion.
The Dense Plasma Focus was invented back in the 1960's by J.W. Mather and independently by N.V. Filippov. In recent years, Eric Lerner has been a big advocate of this technology as a possible means to achieve controlled thermonuclear fusion, in which energy might be generated here on Earth using the same processes that occur in the core of the Sun. If successful, fusion could provide all of our energy needs carbon free, using virtually inexhaustible fuel.
Further, the DPF device is fairly simple to construct. Tabletop models are in operation in physics departments even in third world universities. This device, constructed by Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, is the largest Dense Plasma Focus ever built in North America, yet still cost less than $1 million to construct.
Here's Eric Lerner giving a Google Tech Talk on focus fusion two years ago, October 3, 2007. (Caution: full video lasts an hour.)
The device is designed to produce a plasmoid pinch, which is a very small, very dense knot of plasma that collapses on itself due to internal instabilities. As this collapse occurs, the energy in the plasmoid briefly reaches levels required for thermonuclear fusion to occur.
Although the first test shots were made with ionized helium for the plasma (which cannot achieve fusion), for fusion research the device will use a plasma composed of ionized hydrogen (i.e., protons) and ionized Boron-11, a mixture known as pB11. This type of fusion has the advantage of producing no neutrons (and therefore, virtually no radioactive waste). In addition, it produces a beam of high-energy electrons which can be used for direct electrical generation, essentially by using a particle decelerator. Just as a particle accelerator can use electricity to accelerate electrons to very high velocities, you can also create electricity by decelerating electrons from very high velocities.
Lawrenceville Plasma Physics press release.
Lawrenceville Plasma Physics website.
UPDATE
How close is fusion using this device? Hard to say. DPF devices routinely achieve fusion below the breakeven point already. To achieve breakeven, you need a combination of high heat, high density, and a long enough time for fusion to occur. Currently the DPF holds the world record for the product of time-density-heat. But ...
Scaling up the device should not necessarily produce a plasmoid pinch any hotter or any denser than current devices produce, but it may allow the plasmoid to exist for longer times before it destroys itself.
The key innovation in this device is a new method which, it is hoped, will reduce cooling of the plasmoid that occurs due to x-ray emission. It remains to be seen whether this method will work, or how effective it will be. That's why we do experiments.
UPDATE 2:
Animation of the device in operation: