See Inductance See Diagram see also Tokomak and experiment 1, experiment 2, proposed experiment

Man  has  long thought of unlimited  energy  from  nowhere.  More recently  we have thought of the possibility of  obtaining  power from Hydrogen fusion as the sun does.

According  to theories developed by Physicists over the  last  40 years, the conditions for the reaction to start and be continued, realised in the hydrogen bomb, are very high temperature and high pressure.  In  the  sun this is realised by self gravity  but  to reproduce this in the laboratory on earth we need to contain  the hot gas and compress it. The gas is so hot that the atoms are all ionised and the temperature is so high that material bodies would not be able to survive the heat. The only container yet suggested is  the magnetic bottle.  So far this has failed to  support  the plasma for more than a few milliseconds.

I  propose  that the plasma be heated and contained by  the  same principle  of  the  RF heater,  well known  in  labs.  The  radio frequency  currents  circulate  in a coil and the  rf  energy  is absorbed  by  the  hydrogen gas and it  becomes  a  plasma.  This conducts  electricity  and thus the currents in  the  plasma  are repelled  by the currents inducing them and thus by  winding  the coil round a torus the plasma can be contained.

I  have done a simple experiment with an RF heater and a tube  of low pressure air,  and by looking at the gas in the tube I  could see  the thin line of glowing ionised gas down the centre of  the tube. It was compressed as the power level was increased.

My  feeling from simple calculations indicate that the  frequency needs to be around 100Khz and the power several hundred kilowatts to  heat and compress the gas sufficiently to cause reactions  to take place.

The  next  step  is  to consider  how  the  energy  generated  by thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei
( to form helium )  might be extracted.  It occurs to me that the power might be  collected directly from the plasma by electromagnetic methods.  The reasoning  is  as follows:  As the rf current increases in  the  first quarter  cycle of the wave it compresses and heats the  gas  this causes  reactions  to increase in rate and the gas  opposes  this change,  as  the next quarter cycle of the current continues  the gas  expands  "helping" the current.  This means that  energy  is transferred from the plasma to the current.  In this way oscillation  may be maintained if the power from the plasma  is  greater than the power required to heat the gas.  This extra power  comes from the nuclear reactions in the gas.

I  cannot calculate the mathematics of the process,  but it  must obey the laws of physics.  The connection between the gas and the currents is similar to the "parametric amplifier" where a  change in  a  parameter  such as capacitance at  the  correct  frequency amplifies  an electrical signal.  In this case the  parameter  is inductance  and this changes as the plasma changes its volume  as the plasma is a conductor of electricity.

I  hope  this article is of interest to  others,  and  if  anyone would like to try to build one as a commecial enterprise I  would be  most  interested.  As  I  have  no  capital  my  interest  is theoretical.

Chris. Strevens, 4 December 1988.

Note references to "magnetic field" should be replaced by "force on induced current element".

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