ZPEnergy.com - The future of EPS.

Clint Seward of EPS (Electron Power Systems) recently sent me an update on the progress that his company is making and their plans for the future. According to the document, EPS may have a working micro-fusion generator working within a few years based on the company's proprietary stable plasma toroids.

Below is an excerpt from a recent document his company created:

"Colliding EST Spheromak Neutron Tube for Clean Energy

We plan to build a demonstrator of a new, clean energy source with the potential to replace fossil fuels. We calculate that we can adapt the EST Spheromak to improve the well known neutron tube to produce usable clean energy.

The EST Spheromak has one significant difference from all the other spheromaks (plasma toroids) that Bellan describes in his book “Spheromaks;” the EST has much higher density, and that is the key to energy production. Dr. Chen of MIT identified a previously unknown regime for plasma toroids that showed if they have a high enough density, then they will be stable with no external magnetic fields (his paper is on our website).

We plan to use the EST Spheromak to produce useable energy by adapting it to the well established neutron tube technology. There are several thousand neutron tubes in use today that safely collide hydrogen ions to produce neutrons, which in turn are used for explosives detection, industrial process control, and medical testing. Fig 1 shows the neutron tube schematically. An ion source produces hydrogen ions (deuterium), which are accelerated to 110 kV, then directed to hit the target (also deuterium), a process which produces neutrons (see reference below).

Figure 1: A One Meter Long Neutron Tube Schematic from 12/03 Industrial Physicist

Neutron tubes today are limited in energy output by the low density of the hydrogen ions. Our calculations show we can overcome this limitation by adapting the EST Spheromak to increase the ion density to produce a high output neutron tube.

Our project will adapt three technologies, each of which has been done before. First, we need EST Spheromaks, which we initiate routinely, and we plan to adapt the initiator to the neutron tube. Second, we need to collide EST Spheromaks, similarly to the TRISOPS colliding [spheromak] project in the 1970’s. Third, we need to accelerate EST Spheromaks, by adapting our existing design and using improvements suggested by Dr. Chen. Finally, we can convert to the clean energy process using boron/protons, which has also been demonstrated by others. We need 24 months and $500,000 to demonstrate colliding EST Spheromak energy production. The development milestones:

1. Spheromak initiator adaptation: 2006
2. Spheromak collision for a lab proof of concept demonstration: 2007
3. First neutron tube commercial prototype: 2008
4. First commercial product: 2009

The high output neutron tube can be thought of as a heat generator to replace a furnace and/or to generate electricity. The major application is clean energy applications for cars and home heating/electricity generation. Fuel costs for energy will potentially be 20:1 less than fossil fuel costs. Our website contains further information on the technology or investment." (http://www.electronpowersystems.com/)

If you wish to get a hold of the .pdf that this is from, contact Clint at:

cseward@verizon.net