JoSH@RUTGERS.ARPA (12/21/83)
From: JoSH <JoSH@RUTGERS.ARPA> Anybody know anything about "aneutronic" (proton-based) fusion/fission reactions? These are reactions involving lithium, beryllium, and boron, and protons, which do not require, or generate, neutrons. Since proton based reactions require energies of a Mev or more to bring the proton up to the nucleus, which would correspond to a temperature of 1e10K, it isn't feasible to do them by hot plasma. However, it seemed to me that you might get something by "dropping" protons from a 1 million volt van de Graaf onto a hunk of boron. Unfortunately, I don't have one to experiment with so I haven't tried it. Now I hear that there's a fellow in Princeton (the town) by the name of Maglich, who is attempting proton fusion with particle beams, but with lithium beams as well as proton beams and no hunks of anything. He's using a funny magnetic chamber that wraps the beams around in a cute self-colliding shape. According to the popular article I read, he has achieved his 10 billion degrees and a 45-second confinement period (with 11 million dollars of PRIVATE funding), but lacks the particle density necessary for breakeven. Comments, anyone? --JoSH -------