Theoretical liquid-grid fusion reactor
Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 10:02 pm
Greetings,
I was looking at the design for a fusor and the issues confronting inner grid deformation and the problems concerning deuteron loss to a high skew-per-pass ratio with the inner grid. However, I will forewarn all who read this that what I am about to propose may be a stupid idea and is by no means intentioned to produce anywhere near break-even fusion, please advise me where I could improve or if I should just throw the whole thing away.
Instead of a traditional grid for a Hirsch-Farnsworth Fusor where solid tungsten or tantalum wires are used, I was considering liquid lithium-6 as a target held together by surface tension in the form of a sphere. The reason for Li-6 is because of its ability to breed tritium - a fuel which has an optimal ignition temperature of 4.4 KeV. This material also prevents boiling and the denaturing associated with solid targets. To improve the fusion rate, solid pieces of lithium deuteride will be added, as the deuteron-deuterium collisions will hopefully instigate more fusion reactions and the more-dense lithium will hopefully make for an easier target than the less-dense liquid lithium.
A series of small rods will go to the sphere to deliver the typical 48 KV and 12 mA to optimize D-D fusion and kick D-T fusion into gear. Due to the vapor pressure of liquid metals, a small manual pumping system will be needed to remove lithium metal from the inner liquid grid and add in replacement liquid lithium. For larger reactors that may need a cooling system, a heat exchanger may be set up so that the liquid lithium exiting the inner grid may be used to heat up a liquid metal (sodium-potassium) loop that will go to a magnetohydrodynamic generator (or generator of the sorts).
In order to levitate the molten lithium sphere, I was considering the use of a strong magnetic field. However, due to the use of high voltage electricity, a sort of acoustic levitation using pressurized pulses of deuterium may be preferable. Perhaps, a combination of the two may be the superior solution. The force of deuterons from an ion gun would, in all likelihood, be insufficient for such a task. To prevent an implosion and to optimize fusion rates, deuterium gas may be blown into the liquid metal bubble. This would be a similar process to glass blowing. However, one must be sensitive not to break the bubble.
Such a reactor would be in the spherical form used in most Hirsch-Farnsworth Fusors and would have a spherical grid in the center from which omnidirectional electron emittance beams would originate from. Moreover, deuterium would still be fed in (mostly by ion gun) and used as the primary fusion fuel.
Well, that's my probably crazy idea. I never planned on building it but I am interested to hear what the fusor community has to say. Thank you.
Sincerely, Joshua Guertler
I was looking at the design for a fusor and the issues confronting inner grid deformation and the problems concerning deuteron loss to a high skew-per-pass ratio with the inner grid. However, I will forewarn all who read this that what I am about to propose may be a stupid idea and is by no means intentioned to produce anywhere near break-even fusion, please advise me where I could improve or if I should just throw the whole thing away.
Instead of a traditional grid for a Hirsch-Farnsworth Fusor where solid tungsten or tantalum wires are used, I was considering liquid lithium-6 as a target held together by surface tension in the form of a sphere. The reason for Li-6 is because of its ability to breed tritium - a fuel which has an optimal ignition temperature of 4.4 KeV. This material also prevents boiling and the denaturing associated with solid targets. To improve the fusion rate, solid pieces of lithium deuteride will be added, as the deuteron-deuterium collisions will hopefully instigate more fusion reactions and the more-dense lithium will hopefully make for an easier target than the less-dense liquid lithium.
A series of small rods will go to the sphere to deliver the typical 48 KV and 12 mA to optimize D-D fusion and kick D-T fusion into gear. Due to the vapor pressure of liquid metals, a small manual pumping system will be needed to remove lithium metal from the inner liquid grid and add in replacement liquid lithium. For larger reactors that may need a cooling system, a heat exchanger may be set up so that the liquid lithium exiting the inner grid may be used to heat up a liquid metal (sodium-potassium) loop that will go to a magnetohydrodynamic generator (or generator of the sorts).
In order to levitate the molten lithium sphere, I was considering the use of a strong magnetic field. However, due to the use of high voltage electricity, a sort of acoustic levitation using pressurized pulses of deuterium may be preferable. Perhaps, a combination of the two may be the superior solution. The force of deuterons from an ion gun would, in all likelihood, be insufficient for such a task. To prevent an implosion and to optimize fusion rates, deuterium gas may be blown into the liquid metal bubble. This would be a similar process to glass blowing. However, one must be sensitive not to break the bubble.
Such a reactor would be in the spherical form used in most Hirsch-Farnsworth Fusors and would have a spherical grid in the center from which omnidirectional electron emittance beams would originate from. Moreover, deuterium would still be fed in (mostly by ion gun) and used as the primary fusion fuel.
Well, that's my probably crazy idea. I never planned on building it but I am interested to hear what the fusor community has to say. Thank you.
Sincerely, Joshua Guertler