Reply To: Repowering the electric utility industry

[Joeviocoe]

Focus Fusion will NOT use neutron shields either… the LPP team (and other labs around the world) only get neutrons now because they are experimenting with Deuterium fuel. And they are only fusing Deuterium so they can figure everything out. Later this year, they should be switching to an Aneutronic fuel, Decaborane (14 Hydrogen atoms and 10 Boron atoms in one molecule).

The number of neutrons produced by side reactions will be minuscule and of such low energy that shielding is NOT required. Their will be some activation over time (like after weeks of operating at above 100 shots per second), but this activation will be safe enough for technicians to open the reactor after only 9 hours of being shutdown. Not much of a concern.

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And Bubble-confined Sonoluminescent-laser Fusion (BSF) certainly doesn’t have any issues, since it only exists on paper. Not enough research on a practical device has been done to even confirm how thick this blanket might be since the laser would have to traverse it too. Nor do we know the energy level and penetration power of these neutrons leaving the bubble reaction. Too slow or too fast, and they won’t interact with the heavy water (deuterium) to make Tritium.
Nobody has even confirmed real fusion reactions taking place. So far, some of the scientists working on it, have resigned that the temperatures needed for fusion could not be reached using bubbles.

BSF is still quite hypothetical.