About FFS

• Why “Aneutronic” nuclear fusion?
• Aneutronic Advantages
• Aneutronic Challenges
• Why “Focus Fusion”?
• Dense Plasma Focus Advantages
• What happens if it works - or if it doesn’t work?  
• Best case – Worst Case – In any case
• Is FFS conducting experiments in fusion?  (No, LPP is.)
• What is LPP, and how is it related to FFS?
• What does FFS do? (Build community)
• Why build community?  (collaboration, insurance, fun)
• Activities
• About the website
• How will this result in fusion for mankind?
• What does membership involve?
• Two tier membership?
• Annual meetings
• What are our values and principles? 
• What are our funding needs?
• Core needs
• Program development
• Reflections on a Quest
• Object of Quest (fire from gods / energy of stars / fusion)
• Subject-hero-members of Quest (us!)
• Threshhold Guardians (TG’s, aka “Barriers to Fusion”)
• Legal info
• Contact Us

Why “Aneutronic” nuclear fusion?

We need fusion to help end poverty and the environmental crisis.  But not just any fusion, aneutronic fusion.

Aneutronic Advantages

If fusion is the “holy grail” of energy, then aneutronic fusion is holier.  It’s the Elvis of holy grails of energy. 

This is NOT cold fusion.  It’s hot.  Billions of degrees.  You’re very unlikely to produce excess energy unless you are creating fusion in a hot, dense plasma. 

So what’s different about “aneutronic fusion”?

“Aneutronic” means “no neutrons.” There are NO neutrons as a by product of aneutronic fusion reactions. 

No neutrons means no radioactivity. 

No radioactivity,  no radioactive waste,  and no weapons capability. 

Safe, clean energy.

Also, no neutrons, no steam.  Instead – you get electricity directly.

A comparison of typical Conventional and aneutronic fusion fuels

There are several candidates for conventional fusion as well as aneutronic fusion reactions.  Here we compare the most common:

Conventional:  The product of deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion is helium and neutrons.  The neutrons create heat, which boil water to produce steam.  This runs a steam engine.  In other words, you are using a futuristic fuel to power an 18th century steam engine. 

Aneutronic:  In contrast, the product of hydrogen-boron (pB11) fusion is three positively charged helium ions and NO neutrons.  The helium ions ARE electricity.  So pB11 generates electricity directly.  You cut out the 18th century steam engine technology. 
Here is a more detailed comparison of DT and pB11 fusion.

Aneutronic Challenge

While aneutronic fusion is clearly preferable to deuterium tritium (DT) fusion, it’s also much more difficult to achieve.  Some would say impossible.

Because the goal of DT fusion, an “easier” fusion, continues to elude mankind, the goal of aneutronic fusion is rarely considered.

At the Focus Fusion Society, we feel you can’t solve a problem if you aren’t working on it.  The problem we want solved is controlled aneutronic fusion. 

It’s the hardest energy problem to solve, but why compromise? (Energy crisis got you down?)  And why settle for energy solutions that are inherently compromises?  Shoot for the ideal.  We just might succeed. 

Other energy approaches (solar, wind, fusion-fission hybrids, etc.) have their advocates.  In contrast, aneutronic energy is by and large unknown. 

We seek to get the concept of aneutronic fusion recognized, build awareness of it, advocate for it, champion it, pursue it, achieve it and make the result available to all mankind.

This is our quest, our field of exploration, our great adventure.

Why “Focus Fusion”?

“Focus Fusion” is the fusion of hydrogen and Boron fuel (pB11) in a dense plasma focus (DPF) fusion reactor.  This fusion reaction is aneutronic. 

Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) Advantage

The reactor used in Focus Fusion, the DPF, is a fascinating device.  It’s simple, elegant, compact and with many applications – one of which may turn out to be producing net energy from controlled nuclear fusion. 

While most pursue fusion by attempting to stabilize plasma with giant machines, the DPF leverages the plasma’s instability. Here is a comparison of conventional fusion with focus fusion.  [see also DPF approach to fusion challenges].

The number of organizations that are actively pursuing aneutronic fusion is small [see contenders – see forum discussion ‘til section set up].  The number pursuing focus fusion is even smaller – one:  Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. (LPP) (some additional dpf research related to fusion >>)

“Focus Fusion” –is conceptually the most elegant and ideal form of fusion.  If it works, it will be safe, clean, cheap, unlimited and easily distributed. 

Focus Fusion is also the quickest and least expensive fusion idea to test.  A series of experiments to test it – proof of concept phase - have been initiated by LPP. The experiments are scheduled to take 2 years and cost $5 million. 

It’s ideal, it’s quick and easy to test, and it’s being tested.  “Focus Fusion” is thus the first object of our quest for aneutronic fusion.

What happens if it works…or if it doesn’t work?

Best Case: 

If Focus Fusion, the primary object of our quest, is achieved on schedule (see 2 year experiment), the Focus Fusion Society will focus its attention on the logistics of making the energy available to all mankind and helping with the transition to fusion world.  With such an easy victory in the realms of physics and engineering, the harder task may be facing down entrenched energy giants and other socio-economic barriers (see “threshhold guardians”).

Worst Case:

If the object is not achieved on schedule, the situation will be re-evaluated.  We will, collectively and individually, know more about Focus Fusion by then, more about fusion in general, more about the contenders and more about what we (members) want and are capable of.  We will also have to keep an eye on compelling renewables and conservation strategies as a fallback.

In any case:

In either case, this coming year will be important for the evolution of FFS.  This is the year we witness the LPP experiment unfold.  It is also the year of developing FFS into a broader-based, dynamic champion of aneutronic fusion with a more robust user interface for FFS members.  See our goals.

Is FFS conducting experiments in fusion?  (No, LPP is.)

FFS is not currently conducting experiments in fusion, LPP is.

The Focus Fusion experiment we follow on the site – the LPP Experiment - is being carried out by Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. (LPP), a private research corporation.

In December, 2008, LPP announced that they had raised sufficient funds to initiate a two year long experimental project to test the feasibility of Focus Fusion (proof-of-concept).  [Note:  for information on completion funds and to invest in LPP’s research, you need to contact LPP directly.  Accredited investors only.]

FFS has the privilege of documenting these experiments.  Like embedded journalists, we have the best seat in the house for watching the LPP experiment unfold and reporting in accordance with LPP’s policy on releasing research results.

As we document the experiment, we are developing educational materials on the theory and mechanics of focus fusion and related topics.

As we follow LPP’s progress, we become aware of the technical challenges of aneutronic fusion, as well as the socio-economic issues that face innovators as they seek to develop and test an idea. 

Exploring the technical issues will help shed light on aneutronic fusion.  Exploring and analyzing the socio-economic issues will shed insight into the intersection of innovation, economy, society and politics that are sector wide, and reveal actions we can take to support fusion, and other innovation in general.

What is LPP, and how is it related to FFS

FFS is not synonymous with LPP.

One way to distinguish them is to say that:

• LPP is a private technology company, conducting specific scientific proof-of-concept experiments to show the feasibility of pB11 fusion with the dense plasma focus.
• FFS is a nonprofit charity and membership organization that offers broad-based support of the pursuit of aneutronic fusion through education, advocacy and the exploration of issues surrounding this quest.  FFS is also a social place to have fun with science, the environment and saving the world.

Another important distinction for those who want to contribute financially:

• LPP is a for profit corporation and can only accept money from accredited investors.  Accredited investors should go to LPP’s website for more info.
• FFS is a tax-exempt charity.  Anyone can donate and donations are tax deductible.  Donate now! Proceeds will be used by FFS as described below.

The difference between donating and investing?  Investors risk losing money when they invest, but also stand to gain money should the venture succeed.  Donors give their money with no expectation of financial return.  Their hope is for social or environmental return.  If you are not an accredited investor, you can certainly give LPP money for their experiment, but not with any expectation of financial return.  If they do succeed, the accredited investors will be free riders on your uncompensated contribution.  If that seems unfair, these are SEC rules - discuss in forums.

Initially, FFS was a basic membership organization, and its goal was to raise funds for LPP’s focus fusion research directly.

While FFS never directly raised the kind of money needed for research, it has had a positive impact on LPP’s success by creating awareness of focus fusion. Our site has enabled many people to discover and explore the ideas of focus fusion.  One of these people worked at Google and secured an invitation for Eric to speak there, resulting in a Google tech video.  A number of FFS site visitors have turned out to be investors. As Eric Lerner stated: 

[we got] a trickle of income, not much, from FFS.  This in no way reflects the real impact of the site on our operations, since nearly all of the money LPP has received to support our research came from investors who first learned of focus fusion through the FFS website. So in a real sense, FFS is indeed fulfilling its goal of funding the research, although not directly.

All told, the attempt to raise funds for research directly is no longer being pursued.  We continue developing as an aneutronic fusion advocacy organization, with social-media experiments.

Officially, FFS became a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity nonprofit as of October, 2005. 

Eric Lerner, president of LPP, was also the executive director of FFS, until September 22, 2009. 

On September 22, 2009, Eric resigned as FFS’s executive director to work full time on the experiments with LPP.  He is still involved as the science advisor for FFS.  Rezwan Razani, long time volunteer and occasionally paid webmaster, was voted in as the new executive director of FFS.

One of the key initial tasks of the new executive director is to clarify what FFS is (this essay is written for that purpose).  The other is to set up usable cyber scaffolding (a feature and function-rich website) to empower members of FFS to better collaborate as we set off on our quest for aneutronic fusion. 

So…

What does FFS do?

The primary function of the Focus Fusion Society is to build, empower and serve a community focused on a common goal:  the quest for aneutronic fusion. 

Why build Community?  (collaboration, insurance, fun)
Activities
About the website.
How will this result in a fusion reactor?

Why build community?  For collaboration, insurance and fun!

Collaboration:  the more people involved in the pursuit of fusion, the more collective knowledge is applied to solving this problem.  More perspective, more creativity, more political will, more money, more enthusiasm, more of those unexpected connections and insights that make a difference – all these very tangible things come from human beings who care about something simply communicating. 

More collaboration means the goal, if achievable, will be achieved sooner, and the fruits of the quest disseminated faster.

Insurance:  Awareness of focus fusion and its potential impact on society will pave the way for the sort of very broad public support that will be needed to overcome the resistance of entrenched energy interests and to make focus fusion a reality. 

(In other words, we have a bit of paranoia about being shut down by those who would rather not have cheap, unlimited energy, for whatever shortsighted, nefarious reason.  Being out in the open with lots of supporters would make suppression more difficult).

Fun: A quest isn’t just about the object sought, but also about the process, the people you go with, and what happens along the way.  This makes it fun. 

Think of it!  Out there be global warming dragons and nefarious oil interests, and impossible scientific problems, and yet, we boldly seek the energy of the stars.  How cool is that? 

Why should we sit around twiddling our thumbs, dismissing a quest as quixotic and wishful?  Why not engage in the search, discover ways to support it, and meet friends and characters along the way? 

We’ve got the internet and social media to play with.  Gadgets and creative commons licenses to leverage!  Multiple related issues and themes to explore!  Witty people to explore and spar with!  Grumpy people to laugh at! 

This is not to trivialize the pursuit of fusion.  Science is serious.  Peer review is essential.  But science can also be fun.  And all the ancillary activities in support of science that we will engage in can definitely be fun.  Douglas Rushkoff says it well: 

The language and logic of business are organized around the survival instinct, even when survival is not in question. This is inefficient, unprofitable, and, perhaps worst of all, depressing…Instead of relentlessly pursuing survival even after our survival needs are met, we must learn how to do things because they fulfill us - because they are, in a word, fun.  Fun is not a distraction from work or a drain on our revenue; it is the very source of both our inspiration and our value. A genuine sense of play ignites our creativity, eases communication, promotes goodwill and engenders loyalty, yet we tend to shun it as detrimental to the seriousness with which we think we need to approach our businesses and careers…

…and, I might add, quests for aneutronic fusion.

Activities

What we do is build a community around a quest.  How we do it involves the following: 

Improving the Network:  We explore, expand and support the network of people who are connected to the quest for fusion.  This is ongoing and is mostly done via improvements in our website and outreach activities, including developing a plasma focus network. 

Creating Awareness:  We suspect that most people who would be partners with us on the quest for fusion are simply unaware of the existence & advantages of aneutronic fusion or the possibility of focus fusion.  Thus one of our primary activities is creating awareness. 

Dealing with barriers, aka threshhold guardians: There are many barriers to fusion.  There are technological, psychological, social, economic and political barriers.  We tackle them all.

Developing the Cultural Dimension of Fusion  Through film, theater, dance, and many other creative and collaborative projects, we will engage people of all ages in the concepts of fusion.  Many projects are planned here.  For example, we will work with drill teams to bring depictions of fusion reactions to sporting events throughout the country.  We will develop museum exhibits in collaboration with related museums (nuclear museums, science museums, the boron museum, etc.) that explicitly address fusion and aneutronic fusion.  We will develop films of not simply scientific value, but cultural value that tap into cultural issues related to fusion.

Documentation and Education:  We document the LPP Experiment with photography, film and articles.  We develop educational materials and write think pieces on focus fusion, plasma physics and socio-ecomonic issues related to the quest for fusion. 

Advocacy, lobbying, prize: We advocate for aneutronic fusion, we lobby for it, in order to create a better funding and research climate.  We also lobby for a fusion prize. 

Daydreaming, “think-tanking”, scenario based planning:  What if we’re successful?  What will the world be like then?  Can we handle it?  This requires some active, strategic daydreaming!  What will “fusion world” be like?  How will mankind transition to it, given all the entrenched energy interests and so forth?  We need compelling scenarios, visions, strategies to be prepared for the best. 

About the Website

The focusfusion.org website is the primary platform that supports our community.  It’s a cyber clubhouse for fusion aficionados.  Our website aims to be a content and feature-rich networking platform that will empower our members to explore and connect and carry out the quest.  Currently, the forums enable a lot of interaction, but other features will make the website even more useful for members.

The website as you see it now, is in the throes of change, with a bit of a backlog.

This will be a transformative year for the website.  With the LPP experiment in full swing, and the greater emphasis on the differences between FFS and LPP, the site is being made over.  The key articles are being re-written, and fresh content is being developed that establishes a framework for the quest. 

More significantly, the structure of the website is being upgraded to enable members to supply content and develop materials, and come up with whatever they come up with to extend the reach of the quest. 

Some features we’ll be adding are:

Feature	Purpose	Status
SAEFs	SAEFs (Stand Alone Entry Form) will help members add articles to the website, and not just post on forums.
Tags	A tags feature will be added so that people can label entries as desired.
Digg/Ranking	Digg, and ranking will enable members to evaluate the quality of posts and promote or demote entries, giving us a collective quality control mechanism.
Gallery Extension	The gallery will be extended so that members can add images.
Member Extension	Enabling members more control over their member page, to link to other networks, blog about fusion and so on.
Events calendar
Job posting
Creative Commons library	The “creative commons library” will be a repository of fusion related media that we supply, or users donate, which can be used by members to create films and other materials
Feature Suggestions welcome!	need to start topic in forums

We’re also redesigning the site to be W3 compliant, to be CSS and XHTML based – separating design from structure.  We want to be able to solicit designs from members, who can just switch the CSS and render amazing looks for the site.

If you have web design skills, are familiar with CSS, XHTML or expression engine and would like to speed up the transformation of the site, contact us. 

How will this result in a fusion for mankind?

The history of technology shows that the socio-economic and political climate play a major role in what ends up getting funded.  The road of innovation is littered with heart break and tears.  The risk makes most people conservative.  In business, politics and academia, it’s much easier to find support and financial backing for incremental changes to established technologies, methods or theories.  It’s much harder to muster support for more daring innovations.  [In fusion, some other funding traditions hold firm – discuss!] 

FFS will improve the research and funding environment which will improve the likelihood of research in aneutronic fusion.  Whether or not this research will result in a working fusion reactor is dependent on factors outside of our control.

Ultimately, socio-economic and political factors can’t change the laws of nature.  It’s up to teams of scientists, engaged in their specific research projects, to develop working fusion reactors, within the limits of science.  In other words, we can draw attention to LPP et al, but it will be up to LPP, with its experiments and corporate policy, to:

• Demonstrate net-energy output with fusion,
• Develop streamlined, practical, low cost power plants that can be mass produced,
• Ensure that the results of all fusion research are published in scientific journals and otherwise made available to the entire scientific community for peer review and replication. 
• Adopt a distribution/deployment/licensing model that will diffuse such power plants throughout the world in the most effective way possible to encourage global economic growth and environmental health.

We hope LPP succeeds, and quickly.  Focus fusion is the most elegant, ideal aneutronic fusion concept out there.  We dream of the day we will celebrate the ultimate victory. 

But we also - scheming, calculating, doubting beings that we are - will be using this time of networking and exploration to keep our eyes open for other methods that might work, to hedge our bets, in the field of fusion as well as traditional renewables. 

The Focus Fusion Society supports the LPP experiment (our favorite – ideal!), but it also supports developing a bet-hedging strategy for back up.  We’re a practical lot.  One way or another, aneutronic fusion must come.

Membership

Discuss your expectations of membership in the forums

FFS is a membership organization.  A community is made up of its members, and derives all its strength and identity from them.  Thus, every community is dynamic, changing and growing along with its members.

FFS’s members are united by a common goal (the quest for aneutronic fusion). 

We’re a diverse lot.  We tend to be unconventional, adventurous, practical, yet willing to entertain the possibility of cheap, unlimited, safe, clean energy.  DIYers (Do it yourself-ers), problem solvers.  Not easily intimidated.  Motivated by curiosity, not belief (after all, there’s nothing to “believe” here.  Only a thesis to test.  If it works, you won’t have to believe, you’ll know). 

We don’t really have any statistical profile of our members (the hypothetical “averaged focus fusion member”).  There are a lot of people here with different characteristics, different experiences to bring to bear on our shared quest.

The great thing about membership is the unpredictability of it.  You never know what someone else will say, will come up with, will introduce you to.  Fascinating connections are made. 

Two tier membership?

Currently, there are two kinds of membership.  Basic website, and dues paying.  Anyone can register on the website for free, and post in the forums. Register to become a website member!   We currently have over 1000 website members. 

In contrast, per the charter, dues paying members get voting privileges at the annual business meeting and some other perks.  We have about 40 dues paying members. Become a dues-paying member today.

Does this seem right?  Discuss this 2-tier membership policy in the forums.  We may create some criteria whereby you can earn voting status through action, in lieu of dues.  After all, some people have spare money, and others have spare time or talent.

Finally, we also have the recent issue of random people joining the website who don’t seem to be genuine focus fusion enthusiasts.  About 1,500 such people are in the queue.  They have not responded to the follow-up email to clarify their intentions, and so have not been activated.  Discuss the non-activation policy in the forums.

Annual Meetings

Per the charter, FFS has annual meetings via conference call that are open to dues-paying members. We notify dues-paying members of these meetings via email.  We accept suggestions from all our members (dues and website) on all issues throughout the year.

Values & Principles:

See our values and principles document. Discuss the values and principles in the forums.

A summary:  energy accessibility, wealth and a clean environment for everyone, possibility, inclusiveness, diversity, empirical science, immediacy, generosity, curiosity, fun, hedging bets, best efforts, integrity…

Funding Needs

As noted, there was a time when FFS sought to fund LPP’s fusion research directly.  We no longer do that.  Accredited investors who wish to fund LPP must contact LPP directly. 

If you wish to support the Focus Fusion Society as it builds community and pursues aneutronic fusion, this is the right place. Please sign up as a dues paying member (automatic annual renewal), or make a one time donation (any amount, non-renewing). 

Core Needs

As we are a membership organization, much of the work will be voluntarily done by members, using social media and other tools (website, educational materials, events, conferences, and so forth).  However, developing the tools to empower our members and coordinate their collaboration requires general operating funds and some dedicated staff. 

The key question is, what is the minimum team of paid staff required to build and maintain FFS and how best can they be deployed? 

We’re developing a strategic plan and budget to address these questions.  But don’t wait for a final budget.  Right now, we have one staff member, and a backlog of projects.  Donate now (time, talent, money or all three!) and become a key supporter in tackling these projects on the road to fusion.  Here is a summary of what your current funding will help pay for: 

• Day-to-day operations: overhead, staff, servers, hosting, bandwidth
• Continued development & improvements of the website and forums.
• Continued development of quality content for site (writers, editors)
• Documentation of the LPP Experiment, (cost includes equipment)
• Production of films and educational materials
• Development of scenarios (e.g., soliciting experts in economics and spatial planning to generate possible scenarios of a fusion world based on viable theories)
• Lobbying to create a better funding and research climate for fusion alternatives.
• Outreach for building awareness – press, internet outreach, updating peripheral sites
• Outreach and collaboration for a fusion prize.
• Other outreach events, such as talks, panel discussionsto be developed.
• Volunteer support: helping our cyber and live volunteer community to grow and to do amazing things.

Program Development

In the world of social media, there is no telling what a fully empowered membership organziation can accomplish, just through its members doing things throughout cyberspace.  Empowering them is the core program.

In time, we may choose to develop and execute specific projects and events as well.  These will also come with a cost.  Some ideas:

• Co-sponsor conferences on plasma physics or fusion alternatives
• Scholarships for university programs to fund students that pursue fusion
• Actual fusion experiments or parts thereof (something FFS has done in the past)
• Mounting museum exhibitions of alternative fusion history
• Co-sponsor a fusion prize
• Suggestions…

Like what we’re doing?  Donate now!

Reflections on a Quest

The term “Quest” is used here with sincerity.  FFS is on a quest to obtain a working, elegant, safe, clean, cheap aneutronic fusion reactor, the “holy grail” of fusion.

The logistics of this quest are straightforward. 

The reactor is the object of the quest. 
We are the subjects of the quest.
And there are a bunch of incidents and threshhold guardians along the way.

Object of the Quest

It’s promethean.  The quest for fire from the gods gets a modern update in our search to harness the energy that runs the stars.  Despite our supercomputers, this object has eluded scientists for 60 years, and the event horizon for obtaining it continues to slip back, always hovering about 30-50 years away.  As far as quests go, this one mocks us the most.  Many say it’s unobtainable.  But that’s only because no one’s obtained it yet.  And so we must quest on.  That is, my friends, the nature of a quest.  You either get the quest, or you don’t. 

Subject-Hero-Members of Quest

Like any quest story, the quest isn’t just about its object, it’s about what happens to the people on the quest (the subjects), and how they change and grow. 

“A hero goes “on the road” in search of one thing and winds up discovering something else – himself”. 

“Like the twists of any story, the milestones of the [quest] are the people and incidents that our hero or heroes encounter along the way.  Because it’s episodic it seems to not be connected.  But it must be.  The theme of every [quest] is internal growth; how the incidents affect the hero is, in fact, the plot. 

-  Save the Cat – pp. 28

How will we grow and change?  Who knows.  We have to continue along the quest to find out.  As we have embarked on this quest, we have indeed encountered many incidents, individuals and reactions along the way, which reveal a lot about our own nature, and the environment in which humanity pursues knowledge. 

Threshhold Guardians (TG’s)

While developing the quest for fusion, we have come across many barriers to fusion.  Some were expected, and some were unexpected.
 
It is possible to personify these barriers as “threshhold guardians.” 

In a quest, the heroes encounter “threshhold guardians” (TG’s) who block the way.  Each TG requires the heroes to prove themselves in one way or another.  TG’s test your will, character, cunning, maturity.  There are many ways to defeat a TG.  Mostly, you have to be wise and have a lot of friends.  You have to know something, have some inherent talent.  Sometimes you defeat TG’s in hand to hand combat.  Sometimes you outwit the TG, sometimes you camoflage yourself as one of them to get past.  Sometimes you face an inner demon alone, sometimes you overcome your own flaws to work better with your quest-mates. 

Here are some of aneutronic fusion’s Tgs (AFTGs):
 
Technical TG: The laws of science.  Proof of concept.  This threshhold has mocked scientists for decades, and continues to stand, undefeated. 

How to defeat it?  Either the hypotheses you come up with will work, or they won’t.  The only way to beat this TG is to be right about your science.  As a strategy, you could systematically work to solve the problem, trying one thing after another.  It’s doubtful a “lucky accident” will help you here.  There is no shortcut or emotional appeal or magical resolution to this TG.  You can’t outwit it.  You can’t cheat.  You can’t lobby.  You can’t get a bunch of PhD’s to vote on it and make it so.  You can’t wish really hard.  It has to be empirically right, and you have to prove it.  This is hand to hand combat.  Hard work and perseverance, experimental skill.

If this were the only TG facing aneutronic fusion, things would be straightforward.  Mankind would come together to systematically defeat this TG.  There would be no petty squabbling among academics or vested interests.  No weird political vibes or paranoia that energy giants might shut us down.  There would be quick funding for fusion alternatives and open collaboration.  And we wouldn’t be getting the feeling that some people don’t want this problem solved and seem to want humanity to wallow in limited resources and energy shortages. 

Since things are not straightforward, we know that there are other TG’s in the mix.  So let’s try to identify them:

Entrenched Interests TG:  Some people don’t want a real solution to the energy crisis.  They are happy with a few changes at the periphery that don’t really affect market share…

Fear of Consumption TG:  This is the person that says, “I think unlimited energy is a TERRIBLE idea!  People will consume like rabbits!”  Not sure how prevalent this is.  This is an emotional TG that preys on fears of environmental destruction and doubts about the worth of human beings. 

Competition TG:  This TG is actually good, but sometimes gets perverted into an “antitrust” TG.  It might need to be leveraged into something more constructive like collaboration.  Sometimes, someone is messing with the playing field and trying to shut out alternatives…

Legal

The Focus Fusion Society is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity nonprofit as of October, 2005.  We are a membership organization.  We have no board of directors.  Our staff of one full time, paid employee (the executive director) and volunteers, operates on a one-time budget of $45,000.

Executive Director: Rezwan Razani (As of September 22, 2009)
Science Advisor: Eric Lerner (As of September 22, 2009)
Spokesperson:  Jim Trow (As of….)

• To be uploaded, discussed & revised - Copy of charter
• Coming one day: our annual scorecard; our annual report; audited financial statement; our most recent IRS Form 990 and our IRS Form 990-T.
• Need to draft - Creative Commons policy
• Website privacy policy
• Terms of use
• What other legal info/precautions should be taken?

Contact Us

Rezwan Razani
Executive Director
Focus Fusion Society
PO Box 232
South Bound Brook, NJ 08880

Email:  rezwan (at) focusfusion (dot) org