Reply To: minimal size device for focus fusion to work?

[zapkitty]

Steven Sesselmann wrote: I imagine a fusion powered flying machine would look something like the racing pods that were seen in Star Wars, with the engines suspended far ahead of the passengers, so as to create distance from the neutrons.

Flying would be a bit like waterskiing, you kind of hang on for your life at the end of a rope 🙂

Steven

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… … … … were you aware that the Focus Fusion goal is an aneutronic device? Few neutrons and no boiling water nor any steam turbines.

Approximately a meter of shielding would bring the radiation from an FF unit down to below background levels. No ropes.

But at this time various stresses are assumed to limit each core to about 5 MWe output and so while the energy density of any fusion fuel is beyond comparison to any chemical fuel the minimum volume required for an FF reactor and shielding means that the default size assumption of a “standard” 5 MWe FF module is about 3 meters x 2 m x 2 m sans cooling and auxiliary gear.

Now one such could be almost buried in the wing root of a 747 and you could add an extra core for an extra 2 meters to give you a 10 MWe module… but a 747 is huge and on takeoff needs 90+ megawatts of power and 65 MW for level flight.

Is it doable? And worth doing? I think so 🙂

And it does seem that FF units could easily dominate the mid-size subsonic passenger and cargo markets… which is by far the bulk of the total commercial aviation market.