In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.Subject: Re: Are we really at 80 keV effective energy?
Date: Jun 10, 1:49 pm
Poster: Richard HullOn Jun 10, 1:49 pm, Richard Hull wrote:
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>In the past, I've been wondering if that kind of non-random collision was your goal, and it sounds like it may be based on you naming it the SPHERICAL ION-DEUTERON ACCELERATOR-COLLIDER. (SIDAC)
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>What do you think is the true state of affairs in the fusors you are making? Are your deuterons colliding in standard random thermal distributions of energy and random velocity vectors (just a hot compressed gas)? Or are significant numbers colliding with similar energies with velocity vectors all pointing through the center to increase the number of head-on collisions (more favorable for fusion)?
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The true state of affairs in our systems, as currently made, are such that a full range of things are going on.
We are ripping electrons from gas atoms over the entire volume of the chamber. Therefore, we are making deuterons over the entire volume of the chamber (bad). The bulk of the volume lay near the outer shell of the collider/fusor. Thus the bulk of the deuterons are made in the outer gas volume. (good) All deuterons produced in the system will head for the inner grid, and with good survival, (mean free path related) will be assured of entering the poissor or reaction area and colliding with other incoming deuterons (superb).
Deuterons are coming in from every conceivable angle over the entire volume of the spherical poissor. (bad) They are all concentrated to collide in a very tiny area (very good) The vast majority will never hit head on. (really bad) Even worse still is the fact that those that do hit head-on might be a low energy deuteron (accelerated over only 1/4 the radius of the chamber) and a full energy deuteron this would not give a fusion.
The saving grace of our cheapo systems is their high pressure (~10 microns). Very high gas densities, mean countless billions of deuterons into the center doing collisions. (good - the magic bullet syndrome). At higher and higher voltages, we are doing two wonderful things, both very good........
We are effectively increasing the gas volume over which fusion energy deuterons will be produced.
We are also making collisions between a moderate energy and highest enery deuterons more and more likely to sum to the full fusion range. Also, shallow angled non head-ons will also do the trick and give fusion.
The genral rule is that in a fusor, the neutron number scales with current once the voltage has hit a level where fusion is possible. Between Scott Little and myself, we have noted that with our neutron counting system, the level of neutron production begins around 14kv. This was to achieve a neutron flux just marginally above the noise floor of our counters. I am certain fusion begins actually at about 10KV, but you won't see it very well without megabuck counting systems.
In all of the simple fusors, the efficiency is terrible, but we are doing fusion on the cheap.
Richard Hull