Reply To: Newbie pB11 Fuel Questions

[NoSmoke]

Ivy Matt: My bad – it was p+N15 (and what I read was the Polywell thread so thanks for finding it).

I have read Lerner’s (is that the polite way to refer to him here?) comments that p+B11 goes easier at or around the ideal temperature for that reaction but, does it necessarily follow that D+D (for example) would not be as favourable (as p+B11) at the ideal D+D fusion temperature (i.e. a much lower and presumably easier to reach temperature)? Perhaps it has to do with the greater magnetic field that accompanies the p+B11 fusion conditions (?). Anyhow, that’s why I was wondering earlier if D+D could be a possible fall-back route to take.

Just another wild thought – since blem radiation is generated by the reaction of electrons with ions in a plasma, could it be reduced by stripping some of the electrons from the plasma by some means? I suppose that might increase confinement difficulties but maybe there is a favourable trade-off there. In the spirit of we need everything we can get since, as I understand it from another thread, the max Q that can be expected from the FF p+B11 device is about 1.5(?) which IMO is very uncomfortably close to break-even – we are going to need some very high and perhaps unrealistic energy conversion efficiencies to surpass electrical break-even (and, by a sufficient margin to also surpass commercial break-even). As a newcomer I don’t want to start by expressing negative opinion but I do wonder sometimes what the realistic odds are of actually reaching here such a difficult goal.

james: If the He ions simply spiral around in the plasmoid until they loose their excess energy, how then would then generate net energy when finally expelled from the plasmoid by the magnetic field collapse? It would seem the energy imparted to those ions would only then be obtained from the collapse of the magnetic field which in turn was created by the input energy (which it seems to me would result in no net gain).