A Startup Claims to Have Found a Solution to Stabilize Nuclear Fusion

LPP have been working on this type of fusion for a long time now.

Sustain is not quite the right word. They need to keep plasmoid symmetry while it compresses and then the self-induced magnetic compression can achieve the very high temperatures and pressures needed to get fusion. Their offering requires the temperature and density to be sustained for only a few microseconds because at these high densities fusion is very fast.

Not sure why they are getting PR now (EDIT - they have a crowdfunding campaign to fund the next phase of experiments, through to p-B fusion next year). They have just installed their new beryllium electrode and are doing initial tests, it will be a while before they have reports of fusion rates that show whether they are getting better containment using it. They give regular very detailed reports and it is well worth following them when they are actually doing things, as will be the case for the next few months.

Their proposal is a long shot. It explores an area in the Lawson fusion criteron (time vs temperature and density) that no-one else does. However, unlike others, they have hard data showing their progress (or lack of it) and when things don't work they find out the reason and do something about it. Read the last 2 years "electrode saga" reports...

This is what outlying scientific research into unusual high risk fusion techniques should look like. But then, unlike LENR, they have enough theory and simulation to make sense of their results...

Here, for example, is what the LPP guys do when they discover 5Mev deuterons coming out of their equipment.

This is typical hot fusion approach with all its drawbacks (actually hotter than common ITER/tokamaks). Not sure why they are getting PR now (see above for THHuxleynew's post)... The pinch fusion could work more effectively than tokamak because of low-dimensional character of ion collisions here (I mean with using of Astroblaster effect similar to cold fusion mechanism within metal lattices. But the results so far were not convincing (in particular because the proton-boron fusion requires way higher ignition temperature than deuterium fusion, at least in theory).

The issue with LPP is the conversion of x-rays into electricity. Then there are all those neutrons that go to waste if boron fusion is not achieved and the damage the x-ray flux does to the electrical converter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_energy_conversion

X-ray photoelectric converter

A significant amount of the energy released by fusion reactions is composed of electromagnetic radiations, essentially X-rays due to Bremsstrahlung. Those X-rays can not be converted into electric power with the various electrostatic and magnetic direct energy converters listed above, and their energy is lost.

Whereas more classical thermal conversion has been considered with the use of a radiation/boiler/energy exchanger where the X-ray energy is absorbed by a working fluid at temperatures of several thousand degrees,[24] more recent research done by companies developing nuclear aneutronic fusion reactors, like Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) with the Dense Plasma Focus, and Tri Alpha Energy, Inc. with the Colliding Beam Fusion Reactor (CBFR), plan to harness the photoelectric and Auger effects to recover energy carried by X-rays and other high-energy photons. Those photoelectric converters are composed of X-ray absorber and electron collector sheets nested concentrically in an onion-like array. Indeed, since X-rays can go through far greater thickness of material than electrons can, many layers are needed to absorb most of the X-rays. LPP announces an overall efficiency of 81% for the photoelectric conversion scheme.[25][26]

The issue with LPP is the conversion of x-rays into electricity. Then there are all those neutrons that go to waste if boron fusion is not achieved and the damage the x-ray flux does to the electrical converter.

Axil - that may be one issue, a long way down the line.

The issue for now and the next few years is whether they can get a good enough plasmoid implosion to recoup (as fusion energy out) the energy put in to making the plasmoid. Direct conversion would give them a 2X advantage over a heat engine in the Q needed for this. The balance between energy lost of x-rays from bremsstrahlung and fusion is pretty narrow (one reason why Tungsten electrodes did not work, the metal ion contamination was increasing radiation since it is proportional to Z^2 (Z=ion charge).

Having got there, there are many other issues about electrode wear and other things, but, if they got to being able to make an excess of energy over what they used everyone would see their work as a success and it would receive a lot of money to solve any remaining problems.