I think that adding heavy ions to the plasma does indeed poison the fusion process. This is due to greater energy loss from the plasma in the form of X – ray emissions. And it’s not just the number of nuclear protons, but the square of them. With boron, it’s still not all that bad: 5 X 5 = 25 times more than a single proton of hydrogen.
This is one of the reasons (plus others) why I abandoned the idea of a hybrid fission/fusion like as in an H – bomb, where heavy actinide fission would help to kick – start pB11.
I also considered the blacklight reaction Randall Mills claims to have discovered as a way to make pB11 a lot easier to start. According to Randall Mills, atoms of calcium and phosphorus in the hydrogen plasma act as a catalyst for the reaction. Once again, such larger atoms might cause too much X – ray loss, which would probably cause too much plasma cooling rather than heating.
This is probably why Lerner has the vacuum chamber evacuated of as many impurities as possible before each experimental testing.
To remediate nuclear waste with the DPF, it is probably preferrable to not inject it directly into the plasma focus, but to keep it separate while being irradiated with X – rays or alphas or whatever from a distance. I could be wrong, but at least that’s the only way it seems workable so far as I can tell.
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