Iran and LPP in a team effort…

[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.

[zapkitty]

ikanreed wrote: I didn’t seriously think it was that risky a thing. The only non-sarcastic concern I had was that there would be serious legal repercussions I hope there aren’t. If Iran got a working fusion reactor, they’d lose all pretense for their existing fission program. It couldn’t possibly be portrayed as a peaceful energy endeavor anymore.

… and that would apply to all nations on this planet.

[zapkitty]

asymmetric_implosion wrote: A Q>1 PF could be filled with D2 or DT and produce a large burst of neutrons coupled with a 200 Hz drive.

… and what happens to the DPF structure in that 200 Hz neutronic environment?

There were earnest questions asked in the forums about the possible effects on the DPF structure from the occasional neutron produced by aneutronic reactions.

So if there were structural worries about aneutronic reactions, where the neutrons carry only .2% of the total reaction energy, then how much more so with neutronic reactions where the neutrons carry 400 times that?

And of course there’s the little problem of the DPF core melting long before you get to that level to begin with…

[Lerner]

I’ve looked at this before and I think any idea of using DPF for breeding fission fuel is a red herring. First, our theory says that performance will be orders of magnitude better with pB11 than with D or DT, so conversely yield is way down with any fuel producing neutrons. You would need a huge re-design from a pB11 generator and you would run into all the damage done by the neutrons. So I don’t think it would work.
Conversely, once you have operating pB11 generators, fission energy is obsolete, so uranium could be locked up and fission phased out everywhere.

[asymmetric_implosion]

zapkitty wrote:

A Q>1 PF could be filled with D2 or DT and produce a large burst of neutrons coupled with a 200 Hz drive.

… and what happens to the DPF structure in that 200 Hz neutronic environment?

Key word is illusion. It would be a difficult conversion (Eric said it already) in practical terms but the idea of “bad” is all it takes for some folks. Unfortunately some of those folks are in positions of power.

[dennisp]

Sometimes you have to just do the smart thing and never mind what the idiots think about it.

[Matt M]

I don’t much care for the Iranians. But – if their particiapation helps bring FoFu to a reality,
that can’t be all bad. And, it would undermine their current nuclear program.

[vansig]

That’s the great thing about DPF. Success will undermine *any* current nuclear program.

[ikanreed]

vansig wrote: That’s the great thing about DPF. Success will undermine *any* current nuclear program.

What about programs for heavy radioisotope production, like for chemotherapy or smoke detectors? I mean, in theory, you could do that with a d-t fo-fu device with net negative production, but it would never be as efficient as a dumb nuclear pile.

[Brian H]

LPP’s premier “protection” against any of the kinds of squelching or interference being postulated here is openness. So much info is already provided that if LPP suddenly went “black” any number of countries/agencies world-wide could replicate and complete the work with a few million$ and a couple of years work. IOW, the cat is effectively already out of the bag.

I don’t see the Iranian initiative and collaboration as particularly threatening or even all that important, except perhaps as a kind of back-handed “noodge” to get local backing.

I remain extremely dubious about the value or desirability of US gov’t funding. Strings like steel cables generally come with, and the more you need the money, the tighter the cables. Scoring a one-time grant from some lower level of gov’t might work out. But if possible, adequate funding from private sources, but with all voting rights remaining in Eric’s hands, is far better.

[Author]

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