Lifeboat Foundation

Circa 2015

The affordable, robust, compact (ARC) reactor is the product of a conceptual design study aimed at reducing the size, cost, and complexity of a combined fusion nuclear science facility (FNSF) and demonstration fusion Pilot power plant. ARC is a ∼200–250 MWe tokamak reactor with a major radius of 3.3 m, a minor radius of 1.1 m, and an on-axis magnetic field of 9.2 T. ARC has rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) superconducting toroidal field coils, which have joints to enable disassembly. This allows the vacuum vessel to be replaced quickly, mitigating first wall survivability concerns, and permits a single device to test many vacuum vessel designs and divertor materials. The design point has a plasma fusion gain of Q_p ≈ 13.6, yet is fully non-inductive, with a modest bootstrap fraction of only ∼63%. Thus ARC offers a high power gain with relatively large external control of the current profile. This highly attractive combination is enabled by the ∼23 T peak field on coil achievable with newly available REBCO superconductor technology. External current drive is provided by two innovative inboard RF launchers using 25 MW of lower hybrid and 13.6 MW of ion cyclotron fast wave power. The resulting efficient current drive provides a robust, steady state core plasma far from disruptive limits. ARC uses an all-liquid blanket, consisting of low pressure, slowly flowing fluorine lithium beryllium (FLiBe) molten salt. The liquid blanket is low-risk technology and provides effective neutron moderation and shielding, excellent heat removal, and a tritium breeding ratio ≥ 1.1. The large temperature range over which FLiBe is liquid permits an output blanket temperature of 900 K, single phase fluid cooling, and a high efficiency helium Brayton cycle, which allows for net electricity generation when operating ARC as a Pilot power plant.

Ongoing spear-phishing attacks aim at stolen Windows credentials for ICS suppliers worldwide.

Microsoft just built a huge supercomputer for AI research organization OpenAI. It’s a dream-machine for the company. What will they do with it?

The British company Swindon Powertrain announced market launch of its new, compact and ready to install ‘Crate’ EV powertrain for various EV projects — conversions or new builds.

Swindon encourages that it’s an ideal option for sports, recreation and light commercial applications as well as classic car conversions.

“Suitable for OEMs, niche vehicle manufacturers, electric car conversion companies as well as the enthusiast home mechanic.”

There aren’t many computer chips that you have to build a life support system for.

But when you’re combining actual living brain cells with inorganic silicon chips, you can’t feed them just electricity. You actually need to supply everything they would normally get in a fully biological body.

Why bother?

Process is cheap and more environmentally friendly, say researchers.

Chinese tech giant’s Paddle Quantum development toolkit now is available on GitHub, enabling developers to build and train quantum neural network models, and includes quantum computing applications.

This morning, SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon capsule successfully docked with the International Space Station, bringing the company’s first crew to the orbiting outpost. Their arrival marks another major milestone for SpaceX’s first crewed mission of the Crew Dragon, which successfully took off yesterday, May 30th, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Protesters in Nashville, Tennessee broke into Metro Courthouse, setting fires inside, as peaceful anti-police-brutality rallies slip into chaos and rioting all across the US.

Thousands of people marched peacefully through the city and gathered in the Public Square Park, chanting slogans against police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

#BREAKING: There’s fire inside City Hall. Protestors keep smashing windows. @WPLNpic.twitter.com/uPgLFRCE2W — Sergio Martínez-Beltrán (@SergioMarBel) May 31, 2020