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: An interesting benefit to pulsed fusors
Date: Nov 20, 0:04 am
Poster: Tom LigonOn Nov 20, 0:04 am, Tom Ligon wrote:
Scott,
>You may not want to do that! Consider building a gasoline or turbine engine and not controling its fuel consumption. Before the catastrophic failure, you could get nuked real good.
>
One really neat thing about Dr. Bussard's design is that it depends on an electron potential well which is of limited capacity. If you feed it too much fuel it swamps out the well. The analogy to a gasoline engine is good: too much gas and it chokes out.
And p-B11 is an aneutronic reaction. It only puts out energetic alpha particles. How'zit gonna nuke you?
>
>Realy need to be so large? I figure the business going on in the core is nano-scopic
>
You have to understand Dr. Bussard's primary goal in life -- to go to Mars. The 10 GW reactor is intended to power spacecraft. He likes fast cars and fast rockets.
Tom Ligon