Reply To: Set up a holding company

[Ivy Matt]

I had been under the impression that nobody had achieved hydrogen-boron fusion before, but I was wrong about that, as clearly shown in Observation of neutronless fusion reactions in picosecond laser plasmas (2005). I haven’t been able to find much on the history of hydrogen-boron fusion, but from what little I have been able to find, it appears that the seminal paper on the subject was Fusion cross sections and reactivities (1974), of which George H. Miley was one of three authors. It is not available for free, but can be ordered from the National Technical Information Service for $40 on microfiche or $60 print-on-demand. However, without spending that much money, the Office of Science and Technology’s Energy Citation Database helpfully gives “BORON 11 TARGET” as one of the subjects of the paper. So, presumably the information on the p-B11 fusion reaction was obtained by bombarding a boron-11 target with accelerated protons, and this was done back in the early ’70s.

I’m not quite sure I understand your second question. Fusion occurs between unbound atomic nuclei (i.e. ions), not electrons. The products of the p-B11 fusion reaction are three helium-4 nuclei/ions, also known as alpha particles. If you’re referring to the electron beam produced by the plasmoid in a DPF, I’m not aware of any plasma focus device that has used hydrogen and boron in its fill gas so far, and I presume FF-1 would be the first.