engineer Bill

Yes, the reactor would be operated in pulses. I have idea what the gradient should be. Intuitively I imagine that the reactor could be quickly pushed to maximum or near maximum power before the instability gets "out of hand" and quickly brought back to zero to "rest" until the next "on pulse". Has something like this ever been tried? Old Engineer(72 years old, in fact).

I'm Bill Young. I retired from NASA Life Sciences after 36 years at JSC, Houston. I graduated from the University of Texas Electrical Engineering in August, 1961. I'm a life time radio hobbyist and radio amateur(WD5HOH). I'm interested in electricity, radio, physics and science in general.

I am not a nuclear engineer, but I do understand that control and confinement of hot nuclear fusion has been and continues to be difficult. Holding a hot plasma in place while it produces energy has been complicated by stability problems. Is anyone here familiar with the concept of the superregenerative radio receiver? The receiver is deliberately driven into regeneration and then just as deliberately driven back out of regeneration at a regular rate called the "quench frequency". Could a hot fusion reactor be controlled similarly? Drive it into fusion, hold it there briefly and then drive it back out at a regular rate. The quench rate, waveshape, etc. would probably have to be determined experimentally. engineer Bill