About DensePlasmaFocus.org

Who administers this site?

This site is currently administered by the Focus Fusion Society (FFS).  FFS is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that seeks to support fusion research using the DPF with proton-boron fuel.  Recognizing that such research cannot take place in a vacuum, we have pledged to support DPF collaboration in general.  As such, administering this site is within the scope of our mission and is counted as a program that our nonprofit organization supports.

How can we make this site more useful?

This site is in development.  Please contact us with your ideas of what would make this site more useful. 

Send us links you would like added to the site. 

Register so that you can begin posting in the Forums.  Please identify yourself if you are a researcher, student or professional in this field.  Pros get special privileges.

If you are a researcher, in addition to the forums, you can post directly onto the site or even set up your own blog.  Contact us to find out how to set this up.

How is this site financed?

The Focus Fusion Society supplies the labor and expenses for this website.  It is set to become a “program” in our budget. 

To support this program, send your donation to the Focus Fusion Society, with a note that it is for the DPF.org program.

Donations are tax deductible.

What is the history behind this site?

This website is an informal attempt to place effective organizational and communication resources at the disposal of DPF researchers worldwide.  The thought of developing such a platform goes back many years.

In May 2003, Jorge Pouzo, a leading plasma focus researcher at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, initiated a discussion among DPF scientists in North and South America aimed at forming a “Pan Americana DPF Club”, an organization of DPF researchers. The result was the formation of an ongoing network for communication among the researchers, which produced valuable discussion and lead to closer collaboration.

Dr. Pouzo kicked off the idea by communicating it to research groups in New Jersey (Lawrenceville Plasma Physics), Texas, Canada, Mexico, and Chile. His original conception was to develop a joint project and apply to the Organization of American States or another International funding source for money.

Other participants, such as Julio Herrera of the National University of Mexico, pointed out that there had actually been two earlier efforts to set up international organizations of DPF researchers. In each case, the effort had essentially been reduced to a method of raising money for a single group. It was also pointed out that a concrete project was needed to have a good chance of raising funds.

In response to these earlier problems, Herrera proposed to set up a Pan American DPF Network which would exchange information and ideas, and perhaps collaborate on joint research projects. Eric Lerner of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (and Focus Fusion Society) seconded this approach and further proposed that the network set up an exchange of data, so that experimental data could be widely shared among the network participants. This network idea was informally accepted.

As an early example of the benefits of the Network, there have already been two useful technical discussions via email. The first involved ways to determine the size of the plasmoids (the tiny hotspots formed by the focus) from x-ray shadows of arrays of wires. The second involves a newly uncovered magnetic effect that could make net fusion energy production easier to achieve.

This website seeks to build on these efforts and emerge as a useful support and enhancement of current communication. 

Don’t all these organizations already have websites?  Why do they need another one?

Yes, many websites exist.  But as noted in the history section above:

[there had been] earlier efforts to set up international organizations of DPF researchers. In each case, the effort had essentially been reduced to a method of raising money for a single group.

The Focus Fusion Society has taken the initiative to create a third party website that can be accessible to all groups and address issues of concern to all groups as well as facilitate exchanges between the groups. 

In the future, it is hoped that this website will facilitate more concrete forms of cooperation, and will expand to include all DPF groups around the world.