Zap Energy achieves 37M-degree temperatures in a compact fusion device

Basically, this is just a fancy version of a 1950&#x27;s z-pinch experiment that works slightly better by stabilizing the pinch. Heck, the setup they have currently working is a rehash of the 40 year-old equipment they moved from the University of Washington.<p>They just made it work slightly better enough to keep Zap on the seed-round investor gravy train.<p>Z-pinch&#x2F;Zap is so far away from break even it&#x27;s not even funny, and they&#x27;re nowhere near close to capturing enough energy from high-energy neutrons to even power itself. Basically right now it&#x27;s a 99.99% <i>useful</i> energy loss in their whole system.<p>And it will stay that way. Just need to keep making pretty photos to keep the investors ignorant.<p>Notice how they polished the fuck out of all their equipment? Make it shiny.

From article:<p>“These are meticulous, unequivocal measurements, yet made on a device of incredibly modest scale by traditional fusion standards,” describes Ben Levitt, VP of R&amp;D at Zap. “We’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us, but our performance to date has advanced to a point that we can now stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the world’s pre-eminent fusion devices, but with great efficiency, and at a fraction of the complexity and cost.”<p>“Over many decades of controlled-fusion research, only a handful of fusion concepts have reached 1-keV electron temperature,” notes Scott Hsu, Lead Fusion Coordinator at the DOE and former ARPA-E Program Director. “What this team has achieved here is remarkable and reinforces ARPA-E’s efforts to accelerate the development of commercial fusion energy.”<p>PRL: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;journals.aps.org&#x2F;prl&#x2F;abstract&#x2F;10.1103&#x2F;PhysRevLett.132.155101" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;journals.aps.org&#x2F;prl&#x2F;abstract&#x2F;10.1103&#x2F;PhysRevLett.13...</a>

For a non-maxwellian temperature distribution plasma like in a z-pinch bragging about 3kev is weird. Other pulsed fusion mechanism like plasma focus have achieved 100kev.<p>You only brag about 30 million degrees if it&#x27;s a thermal temperature distribution plasma (and moreso if it&#x27;s steady state and not pulsed like this).

How many kelvin is 37 million degrees C?