Fusion Power

Polywell Fusion, who has been working on a promising line of research funded mostly by the Navy, has sent out an annual progress report. Don't get excited, it says the current project (WB8) is about half done and on schedule.

What's interesting about the report is the obligatory reporting on jobs saved or created for the benefit of the government.

Jobs Created 11.00

Description of Jobs Created two full time plasma physicists. one full time equivalent electrical engineer.

So two physicists and one engineer equals 11 jobs. I suppose the magic word here is "equivalent", by which 9 electrical engineers working 4 1/2 hours each per week adds up to one full-time equivalent EE and still counts as hiring 9 people.

It's higher math, which is why they hire the physicists.