Reply To: NIMBY FUD

[asymmetric_implosion]

I’m happy to hear you have open minded investors.

Glad to hear there aren’t any glitches with DoD and DHS. Some of those folks might be crazy but they can’t just come and take you in the night. You get a visit to warn you that your activities have been reclassified and the consequences. All these issues can be negotiated but it is a resource game. The gov’t strategy I’ve run up against is the attempt to exhaust resources of small companies by asking you to prove everything is fine. I hope it doesn’t come to that.

AaronB, fusion energy is not the issue I’m worried about. Neutron based interrogation systems are a touchy technology with DoD and DHS. Both have funded PF research as an active interrogation source to find all sorts of “bad” stuff. A Q>1 PF could be filled with D2 or DT and produce a large burst of neutrons coupled with a 200 Hz drive. An intense neutron source is also a concern for sub-critical fission systems that could convert 238U to 239Pu without enriched fuel. You suddenly find your technology in the isotope production world without ever meaning to be. Probably an inefficient way to produce Pu. DD could also be used to produce T. 5 MW at 200 Hz is 25 kJ net per shot so something like 100 kJ produced in the burst so ~1E17 Tritrons per burst from DD (of course this assumes DD is as good a p-11B which is close enough for back of envelope) or 2E19 tritons per second or 0.5 Curie per second. I won’t claim it is a scary number in itself but the implications are a bit concerning considering you don’t need a fission reactor and special fuel loading to produce the T. I can think of a few folks in the US and beyond that have an interest in such a system. The other isotope of interest from DD is 3He. An alternative source of 3He is badly needed. These production rates might be interesting as 3He and T are produced at the same rate. Four hours to produce enough 3He to fill a detector is pretty interesting.

My intention is not to be negative but to point out that the noble intention of clean fusion energy can be converted into the illusion of weapon’s tech without much thought.