Reply To: Toshiba's "Micro Nuclear Reactor" – it's not fusion, but it's here now

[AaronB]

I like the General Fusion guys, but I think their approach will run into some difficulties if I understand it correctly. The spinning liquid metal will have two open “whirlpools” at the ends, one on the top and one on the bottom. Because of gravity applying pressure on the spinning liquid, the top whirlpool will be larger than the lower one. When the hammers strike the outside of the vessel, the shock waves won’t go straight in. They’ll radiate inward in all directions, with the idea that the centrally-directed waves will reach the middle at the same time and compress the plasmoids that are shot into the middle (which isn’t the exact middle) through the middle of the whirlpools. However, the shock waves will hit the surface of the whirlpools before they get to the middle. The shock waves will be so powerful that they will cause the surface of the whirlpools to virtually explode in a mist of metal droplets, which will interfere with the plasmoids as they come rushing in. Also, shock waves travel at different speeds through the liquid at the top of the device compared with the bottom, because of the pressure differences caused by gravity. Turbulence will also cause the shock waves to get distorted, and there’s going to be a whole lot of turbulence from the liquid being pumped in at certain points, like in a jetted tub.

I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it would be extremely difficult to get the shock waves to combine at the center of a perfectly still pool, let alone a spinning, pumping, pounded, asymmetrical double whirlpool that has metallic mist flying out of both ends. Imagine getting a small plastic swimming pool, filling it with water, then inviting all of your friends over to kick the sides at exactly the same time, in hopes that the center of the water will fly up so suddenly that it could launch a floating ping-pong ball into orbit. It is reasonable to guess that you and your buddies would get soaked while the ping-pong ball remained fairly well earth-bound. It would be fun to watch, record, and post to YouTube.

Assuming they work out these minor problems, then they still have to deal with the hard stuff, like X-ray and other plasma cooling by the liquid metal, dealing with the fusion products, steam cycle inefficiencies, etc. They do get bonus points for creativity and thinking big. Who knows? They might pull it off.