kr0u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kevin William Ryan) (03/29/89)
Looking at the traffic concerning the announcements of possible room temp
fusion, I noticed a couple of common threads which I thought could use some
comment.
1) FUSION ENGINES
I suspect that we may _never_ get a fusion torch with this method. Room
temp fusion (henceforth RTF) requires that the fusion take place in a palladium
matrix. High power densities would, first, melt the palladium electrode,
not to mention boil the surrounding water, and second, would still be IN the
palladium - not spitting reation mass out the back. I see RTF as a great
power source, which could drive more conventional electric or thermal engines.
High efficiency rockets require high velocity exhaust - RTF implies low
temperatures and hence slow moving particles. The only thing that might be
moving fast is the neutron flux, which is non-directional and highly
unpleasant.
2) CHEAP NUKES!!
This requires comment from the particle physics folks out there. Are the
neutrons emitted from RTF sufficient to create fussionable materials? Please
post some knowledge for us poor untutored ones who know not the nuclear
cross section of common elements.
3) UNLIMITED CHEAP POWER
The age-old promise of nuclear fission, and the holy grail of fusion.
This one sounds good, folks, that's for certain. Possible show inhibitors
(but not stoppers) are: neutron flux; lower than expected according to first
reports, but still there, tritium as waste; tritium falls into that unpleasant
class of isotopes with a half-life (12 years) long enough to be tough to
contain and short enough to cause damage - show me an isotope with a 500K year
half-life, and I'll build a bed out of it :-), and finally the apparent need
for D-D reactions. Deuterium is not too hard to get, but neither is it
exactly common. It will cost something to produce it on large scale basis.
First reports on RTF claim that the process will be easily scaled to
produce power, which I tend to believe based on what I've heard so far. If
everything works out as stated I can see large pressurised deuterium-enriched
vessels heating the first stage of steam turbine power plants, essentially
replacing the core of a nuclear reactor with a rather cleaner and much cheaper
heat source.
All in all, I'm tickled pink by the news. Hope it all works out. With our
experience in fission plants, perhaps our grain of salt is big enough to
prevent some of the difficulties we've had with those.
kwr
"Jest so ya know..."
P.S. Anyone out there have decent information on RTF being possible with
D-H reactions vs. D-D reactions?