Suspecting Conspiracy

But Not Wanting to Look Like a Harmless Crank

I was born in 1941. I first heard the story about the one hundred mile-per-gallon carburetor when I was eleven or twelve. It was related to me as fact: that the carburetor had been invented in the late 1930s and the oil companies had bought it and buried it. Essentially the same story was related to me —again as fact— just a few weeks ago. I am inclined to suspect that people who believe the story are harmless cranks.

Yet the story of the American corn alcohol industry arouses many of the same feelings as the carburetor story and it is completely true. The energy in the fuel and fertilizer required to create a gallon of corn alcohol exceeds the energy contained in that gallon of corn alcohol. Production of corn alcohol makes no sense because it results in a net loss of energy; yet the production continues year after year only because of US government subsidies. People in the corn alcohol industry benefit, and maybe a few politicians benefit. Everyone else loses.

One story is myth, the other is fact; and both are scandalous conspiracies. But there is a third story that is of greater concern to me.

The Polywell is a nuclear fusion reactor that has the potential to make electricity from chemical derivatives of borax and water. The only product other than electricity would be helium. The particular nuclear reaction involved in the process produces no harmful radiation. Thus, the fuel is harmless, the reaction is harmless, and the products are harmless. The Polywell was first tested successfully in late 2005, but funding for the project was cut off by the Bush administration. Its inventor, Dr. Robert Bussard, sought funding for the full-scale 100 megawatt prototype that he thought was the logical next step for another two years. Then Dr. Bussard died. The project was eventually funded at a very low level under the direction of Dr. Richard Nebel, who was directed to verify Bussard’s claims. He did so, and then stated that the 100 megawatt prototype would be a logical next step. The funding continued at a very low level — far too low for a prototype, and Nebel left the program. It has been seven years since Dr. Bussard first advocated the 100 megawatt prototype, yet the low-level funding -utterly inadequate for building the prototype- continues to this day.

Start-up costs for a Polywell power plant would be less than half the start-up costs for a wind farm or solar power plant, or conventional nuclear fission plant of comparable power output. The Polywell would be far more efficient and reliable than wind or solar; and far safer than the nuclear fission plant. Yet those in power —Congress and the US Department of Energy-- steadfastly refuse to adequately fund the Polywell program. Why would that be?

As a source of electricity, the Polywell would clearly be superior to coal-fired or gas-fired power plants, or solar or wind, or conventional nuclear. How would deployment of the Polywell affect the coal industry, the gas industry, the “green” energy people, the nuclear energy people — or even the petroleum industry when on considers the potential of the Polywell to charge electric cars? Who has the most lobbying potential with Congress and the US Department of Energy? Those who support the Polywell project or the energy industry — coal, petroleum, gas, nuclear, and “green” energy?

Suspecting conspiracy, but not wanting to look like a harmless crank…..