Fusion Message Board

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: Minimum fusion energy? Voltage?
Date: Aug 17, 10:28 am
Poster: Richard Hull

On Aug 17, 10:28 am, Richard Hull wrote:

All,

We need this post to sort of sum up what is fusion and where this process occurs.


Fusion, that is hot fusion, via the fusor's normal D-D regime is said to begin to occur in the temperature range of 400 million degrees Kelvin.
This is a maxwellian heat value and is related back to energy via the 1 electron volt energy = ~11,0000 deg K equivalence.

This means that a deuteron must hit another deuteron or deuterium atom with a total expenditure of kinetic energy of ~37kev. This is a minimal value and not an optimum value.

50% of the fusions occuring will yield a neutron of 2.45 MEV and the other 50% will yield a proton in the 3 MEV range.

We make a tritium atom in 50% of all the successful fusions. This will, over time spike our reactions slightly to burn in D-T mode.

Our fusor is a multipactor or deuteron collisional machine in its finest and ideal form. This means that we are not supposed to see neutrons or fusion reactions until that magic 37kev threshold. As we are achieving double the energy in head on collisions, and head-ons only, We would expect the first fusions to become possible at 17.5 kv potential applied. Again, this is threshold.

In actuality, we, as amateurs, can't seem to measure statistically significant neutrons until about 20 kev due to the manner and mechanisms of neutron detection. (~10,000 neuts/sec)

From this point on, due to deuterium-deuterium collisional cross sections, based on pre-existing data tables, we should expect ever more neutrons with increasing voltage. This, theoretically seem to increase in a roughly linear manner up to about 300,000 volts applied to our chamber. Actually it should go up much more rapidly than this due to the nature of the IEC device!

As we up the voltage, more gas volume is included in the region of prime acceleration to achieve fusion energy. So, as the cross section rises, we also have more deuterons AT FUSION ENERGY added to the equation.

In addition, we are getting more and more off axis hits creating fusion due to individual deuterons colliding with energies well above that needed to fuse head-on.

All of the above make the fusor a special device and unique and separate from the classical "bombard a target" fusion or the magnetically confined purely maxwellian system.

Richard Hull