[Tasmodevil44]

Seeding the oceans with iron to encourage algal blooms in the ocean may indeed be one of the most practical and economic ways to remove vast quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere. But I heard recently that some environmentalists oppose this approach ( just can’t win for losing ).

Physicist Alfred Y. Wong of UCLA has proposed a really far – out scheme of ionizing CO2 molecules with either microwave antennas or lasers so that the CO2 will then interact with the Earth’s magnetic field. The ionized CO2 will then be accelerated up into outer space never to return ! ! ! Sounds sort of wacky, I know. But Wong’s concept is all based upon sound physics.

Many years ago, I read about a strange phenomena where CO2 was attracted to magnetic fields. I’ve read about it a few more times over the years. This strange anomaly is indeed weird, because CO2 is NOT supposed to be magnetic. It will interact with magnetic fields only if first ionized.

But anyway, I once proposed the futuristic use of some kind of force field, tractor beam, or carbon dioxide magnet that could draw CO2 toward it. I also proposed the use of some sort of separation and extraction from other atmospheric gases by using some sort of porous membranes assisted by magnetic fields. The CO2 could then be used to synthesize renewable hydrocarbons by some kind of manmade duplication of photosynthesis. And it would all be nuclear powered.

However, I recieved all kinds of scoffing and ridicule for such an outlandish thing. I was called a crackpot and just about every other name you could imagine. As sci – fi futuristic as it may sound, I think such ideas warrant further investigation rather than being completely dismissed out of hand. What if CO2 really could be drawn out of the air by some kind of electrostatic field or something ?

But by far the most practical and economic way to deal with CO2 and global warming is to simply NOT burn fossil fuels and release it in the first place. Like Jolly Roger said, trying to sequester it or any other approach is like closing the door after the horse is gone.

[Tasmodevil44]

Not only may the alpha particles possibly remediate nuclear waste, but x – rays also have the possibility of knocking excess neutrons out of radioactive isotopes, rendering them harmless. I think I may have already mentioned this possibility in one of my other posts.

[Tasmodevil44]

Lerner is highly confident that there is a high probability that p+B11 fusion will eventually achieve ignition with the use of only decaborane by itself.

After exploring various options of some kind of supplemental energy boost …… heavy atom fission, helium 3, duetrium, and the blacklight reaction …… they all seem very unlikely candidates. Even a workable energy assist, if found, may not improve the operation of the FF device that much anyway. It might possibly reduce the electric power requirement for heating the plasma, but that’s about it.

In the past, I also considered the blacklight reaction as a possible supplemental energy assist to help initiate nuclear fusion. I think Randall Mills said that the presence of atoms of calcium and phosphorus in the hydrogen plasma acts as a catalyst for the transition of hydrogen to hydrinos. Lerner might want to try injecting some calcium and/or phosphorus into the DPF just for kicks to see if anything will happen. More than likely, nothing would happen. But who knows if such basic research and shots in the dark might turn – up something. If the calcium and/or phosphorus actually worked to catalyze the hydrogen to hydrino transition, that would be great.

In fact, the presence of atoms with a high atomic number of protons might have the opposite of desired effect by cooling the plasma with too much x – ray emission loss. Especially when the loss is the square of the atomic number. With boron it’s not all too severe (5×5=25), but with larger atomic numbers like calcium or phosphorus it might be much greater.

If indeed the blacklight reaction were to work in assisting fusion, it would have to perform it’s job very quickly …… large numbers of ordinary hydrogen atoms undergoing transition to hydrinos …… dumping enormous energy into the plasma very fast …… say, probably within only 3 or 4 picoseconds or something like that.

I sent an E – mail to Blacklight Power several years ago, and asked them if the blacklight reaction might help to harness the power of fusion. I got no reply back from them.

However, Randall Mills himself could have indeed considered the possibility, because I read on the internet a few years back that he was tinkering around with heavy hydrogen ( deutrium ) in some of his experimentation.

[Tasmodevil44]

I’m really curious about this fascinating new discovery for potential containment. I’m curious about the types of light that can be used. Could you do this with high energy x – rays or gamma rays in that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum ? How about visible red or blue light ? Or infrared ? Interesting possibilities here.

[Tasmodevil44]

Lerner is highly confident that a high probability of p+B11 fusion ignition can be achieved with the decaborane alone. After exploring various options for some kind of supplemental energy boost …… heavy fissionable atoms, helium 3, deutrium, and the blacklight reaction …… none of them seem very likely candidates. A workable one, if found, still probably would not improve the FF reactor’s operation that much. About all it might do is perhaps reduce the electric power requirement for heating the plasma, but that’s about it. I still find it fun exploring such improbable options, even if many times they are not practical.

[Tasmodevil44]

I never thought of that. But yes, an incredibly powerful focus fusion laser could theoretically be used to accelerate a solar sailing craft to Mars. Or beyond Neptune, Pluto, even beyond the solar system.

[Tasmodevil44]

Like I’ve already stated, this idea about antimatter assisted fusion is just a basic, crude and unrefined idea …… good for general academic discussion only …… not to be taken too serious until future breakthroughs or further refinement bring it closer to reality. For one thing, although 100 Billion positrons may sound like a lot, it’s just a puny and trifling drop in the bucket compared to how many would have to be produced to initiate fusion in a deutrium/tritium fuel pellet.

[Tasmodevil44]

Very well put, AaronB. These are very exciting times to be living in. And it all makes one live in anticipation of what more things will happen tommorrow. It’s almost like when you were a little boy when Christmas Eve was approaching …… the anticipation and suspense of having to wait in order to tear into all those gifts under the tree just kills you. Just substitute the gifts under the tree for the excitement that future technology can bring.

Like I said, what I like about the focus fusion forums is the open – mindedness encouraged here. I’ve been in other forums on the internet where people were extremely arrogant and rude with personal insults and derogatory language like stupid, ignorant crackpot, and etc. But in the focus fusion forums, most of the technically knowledgeable people here show others respect …… and explain things to you in a polite, civil manner so as not to be too personally insinuating …… or to hurt your feelings when explaining why they don’t think something has a very good chance of being feasible. Brian H even apologized to mistry4u for sounding like a dumb layman way too ” twilight – zoned ” out. Most interesting of all, you learn a lot of really cool nuclear physics stuff along the way ! ! !

True science should always and foremost be about open – minded scientific inquiry. Deeply entrenched dogmas and stiffling arrogance should never impose too much dictatorship and censorship in science, for this can undermine the entire scientific process and scientific method. And yes, it also requres humility and humbleness to admit when you’re wrong about something, too.

[Tasmodevil44]

Scientists have already developed something called a free electron laser that amplifies a laser by having photons of light in a laser beam travel parallel to an electron beam and a channel of magnets. As the magnets wiggle the electron beam, it imparts energy to the laser photons.

I have wondered if the FF could power a free alpha laser instead, where the negative charged electrons are substituted and replaced by the positive alpha beam coming out of the FF reactor. It would work in much the same way : the alpha particles are wiggled by magnetic fields, transferring their energy over to the laser photons …… thereby amplifying it.

But like Lerner said, the United States, Russia, China, Japan, Great Britain, etc. already have enough weapons to destroy the entire world many times over. Who really needs more ?

However, I can see some peaceful applications of a free alpha laser driven by the energetic alpha beam of the FF reactor. Perhaps a powerful pulsed beam could be an alternative way to blast a road tunnel or a railroad tunnel through a mountain or something.

I know this may be drifting a little off the main subject here, but I just decided to mention this as still yet another possible application of the DPF in the future.

[Tasmodevil44]

Or maybe I’m just too optimistic in counting chickens before they hatch. But we have to try to keep being optimistic in keeping fingers crossed.

[Tasmodevil44]

I think that these micro nuclear reactors are really cool. I’ve also read all about the other one Hyperion plans to produce soon. I’ve always argued for years that gargantuan reactors like Three Mile Island is the wrong approach. The capital outlays upfront are far too expensive and it takes too long to build them. A standardized design of mass – produced reactors rolling off an assembly line more like Detroit automobiles is a far more economic approach.

But while this may represent a great improvement in the economics of cheaper mass – produced nuclear reactors, I still have to agree with Lerner and Brian H that when focus fusion reactors begin to surpass the breakeven threshold and start producing more energy than requred to start the pB11 reaction, then it will be a whole new ballgame of nuclear economics in town. It would begin to far surpass and knock the socks off anything else out there. And Brian H is also correct in stating that many of the more closed – minded and conservative skeptics still don’t think FF is anywhere near practical yet …… that we are still chasing a moving target that keeps moving farther into the future. But when it begins to far surpass breakeven, it will definitely cause consternation and raised eyebrows. It will definitely make a lot of people out there stand – up and take notice.

[Tasmodevil44]

Oh, and there’s the other alternative fuel that I forgot to mention riding in on the back of focus fusion:

It has often been said that hydrogen is not a real energy source, but only more of an energy CURRENCY. Just a method of energy storage …… and a very bulky, impractical and uneconomic method of energy storage at that. No large naturally occurring deposits of hydrogen exist anywhere on earth like coal, oil, natural gas, uranium or thorium. All hydrogen has to be produced from already existing energy sources.

However, hydrogen could come one step closer to looking more like a real energy source …… in it’s own right …… if it rides in on the back of some other cheap and plentiful energy source. Focus fusion could potentially produce unlimited cheap hydrogen.

There’s no sense in wasting good natural gas. It’s a limited, finite fuel, too. Just like oil. And although it produces less greenhouse carbon dioxide for the same amount of Btu’s of energy, it still produces CO2 nonetheless. But hydrogen may be made to flow through existing natural gas pipelines with very little modifications. Today, natural gas is used in industry for all kinds of high temperature processes : melting glass, metals and other materials, as well as firing ceramic materials. Natural gas might be substituted for hydrogen in many of these applications. All this valuable methane is too important a chemical feedstock for making rubber, plastic, petrochemicals, etc. than to mismanage and squander it all by simply burning it up. Cheaply mass – produced hydrogen from focus fusion might help to remedy the problem as a natural gas substitute in the future.

[Tasmodevil44]

The energy conversion efficiency of such a thing would definitely be lousy. I have considered the blacklight reaction as an alternative way to assist in adding more energy, but this controversial physics claim of Randall Mills is very unlikely to add anything, either.

[Tasmodevil44]

It might still be possible to theoretically create a hybrid fission/fusion DPF like the hydrogen bomb, but it woud more than likely make the DPF a dirty radioactive powerplant rather than a clean one. In the hydrogen bomb, a plutonium bomb supplies the energy to get fusion started. Therefore, it’s not much cleaner than just plain fission.

Thorium can indeed fission with protons in place of neutrons, but it probably takes a full – fledged particle accelerator to get the required electron volts necessary to overcome the coulomb barrier.

Another possibility is photo – fission. But this requires a gamma ray that is energetic enough. But alas, I doubt if the x – rays generated by the DPF would be sufficient. This would really be nice if it could do it by photo – fission, because the radioactive fission products of thorium produced this way are so short – lived they have half – lives only minutes to hours at most.

But there is one remaining possibility, however. If a thorium nucleus absorbs an energetic alpha particle …… it can leapfrog right over the lengthly intermediary protactinium transmutation step …… going directly to unstable U236 …… and immediately fission thereafter.

However, like I already stated, it would more than likely turn the DPF into a dirty rad producer. This is because after the thorium nucleus absorbed an alpha particle and underwent fission, it would emit two or three neutrons. After continuous operation for awhile, the outer walls of the DPF chamber would become radioactive and more than likely suffer major neutron corrosion from all the neutrons absorbed by the walls.

But more than likely, it would still be difficult to make it work in helping to assist focus fusion with fission of heavy actinides like thorium, uranium, plutonium or americium in this manner. It would probably also be difficult to assist with supplemental fuel additives to the decaborane by using additives like deutrium or helium 3. I have also considered the possibility of using the blacklight reaction discovered by Randall Mills to help aid the p+B11 reaction. However, the blacklight reaction is still highly controversial in that some physicists consider it to be in contradiction to what is currently known about quantum mechanics. In the meantime, I continue looking for some other kind of additional energy producing ” uummph ! ” that might help p+B11 along.

[Tasmodevil44]

Lerner has indeed already considered this …… I already read about this concept some time ago. And you are indeed correct about how it would have a very high specific impulse for acceleration. Which means so little fuel consumption that only a few grams ( milligrams? ) of decaborane could take you just about anywhere you want to go in the solar system and beyond. In fact, I believe the FF is about the only practical way to make an extended mission to Mars feasible.

Not just for propulsion, but the energy required for an extended stay on Mars once you get there. Because it’s a cold wasteland about as cold as Antarctica, even extremely thick insulation in the walls several feet thick won’t hold all the heat inside so the occupants can stay warm. This will require heat supplied by the FF device …… not to mention electricity to power various instruments and other things. An exploratory roving vehicle could also be powered by fusion …… to make hydrogen or to charge it’s batteries. And water could be extracted from martian soil and used to produce oxygen for breathing.

But by far the most exciting concepts is how it could revolutionize the entire transportation sector …… both here on planet Earth and off of it.

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