Reply To: Fusion Oil

[nferguso]

I have been following FFS website activities for a few months with interest. I hope your society and the LPPX continue to prosper. Perhaps someone could help me with answers to a couple of non-scientist questions I can’t find the precise answer for.

I have gotten the impression that when a fusion of boron and hydrogen occurs in a FF device, it is the alpha particles produced by the fusion that will leave the reaction area, and it will leave in a beam axial to the electrodes rather than evenly in entirely random directions. Is this true? That would be the implication if “particle decelerator” mechanisms are to be used to capture the electric energy directly from the particle momentum. Oh, and if true, is it a single direction axially, or bidirectionally out both ends of the reaction area? The thread suggests it’s unidirectionally but I want to be sure.

Second, If the particles emerge from the reaction area in a beam rather than omnidirectionally, is it because the electromagnetic forces of the plasma focus them to do so, or is it because the boron and hydrogen particles have been guided to fusion so that the alpha particles are thrown off in a uniform linear direction? The latter doesn’t seem possible to me, but I’m no physicist.

The gist of the thread has me wondering. My understanding is that the “positive” beam is composed of high energy helium ions formed and accelerated by the fusion reaction. There is no corresponding beam of “negative” electrons with equivalent energy created by the fusion, is there? The reaction is nuclear, not electrical. Is my layman’s understanding at all close? Or have I missed the point entirely?