I will give a bit of info which is relavent to X-ray production in the ITT fusors.
Their shells were in-house spun from .020 to .030 SS. This is quite thin compared to our Braun hydro formed .060 hemispheres. X-rays could start pouring out of their fusors at much lower acceleration voltage than ours, maybe as low as 25-30 kv. A typical run voltage for them was 80kv or more. That means that x-rays were a continual and immediate vacinity hazard all the time! Ours are dead quiet at 40kv or more (~ extimated breakthrough of x-rays on ours is ~60kv).
Even with their units pushing out x-rays, they never heavily fogged any area or personnel badges after this incident other than for once when Gene Meeks who had a burn through in normal opeartion on one of Bob's fusors at 100kv and Steve Blasing when he was using a 2 curie Ra-Be neutron source for a few days to cal instruments.
So was the exposure x-rays, or Neutrons and x-rays. Regardless, the voltage applied was NOT extra-ordinary compared to the many normal runs experienced. The badge returns as "totally overexposed" WERE extra-ordinary.
I believe as Bob Hirsch noted to me in a moment of reflection over his painful memories of having pumped up the national fusion program from a 10 million dollar a year, 4 lab, dable by a bunch of eggheads to a billion dollar juggernaut in the early 70's. He noted that if fusion can be done by man at all, in an overunity scenario, it can be done on a table top!!!
Shear size, will, by itself, never make fusion work! It will only put a lot of people to work and create a rolling and self-perpetuating, self-protective, infrastructure. Small operations and investigations with specific milestones push the participants to be active. Small blind alleys create small loses. Small projects that show promise and meet genuine and significant milestones regularly can be expanded, renewed and refunded. Small projects that fail or hit endwalls can be terminated without massive lobbying or political pressures attendant with huge intrenched infrastructures.
This means that maybe fusion on a self sustaining basis has already been done in a small IEC device which with no controls just heated until it failed. How the ignition occurred and how to control it is the real heart of the matter. I am on board now with the feeling that IEC fusion may have actually occurred during the ITT period. I am also firmly convinced there is no coverup, no conspiracy, or other bizarre reason it was not reported or is not in common use today. Instead, I believe it was a lucky shot, if it really ignited, done accidientally by inpired people who just weren't running it for recording purposes at the time.
Richard Hull
Richard Hull
Created on Thursday, May 24, 2001 11:46 AM EDT by Richard Hull