Science Forums 2

[erich]

You certainly do your homework Democles, wow...... what a reply..........


Concerning P-B11 fusion :

I sent the link to Gerhard's paper to Clint Seward, here's his reply:

" Hi Erich,

Thanks for the email. I found your references to be fascinating.

I scanned the science forum and it tracks things accurately so I will be reading it faithfully.

I read the Gerhard reference and can explain the issue he is raising. I would tend to agree that in a hot plasma of sufficient energy for a p,B reaction the He ions will form and remain in the plasma. I would tend to agree with the author’s concern that these He ions would then tend to interact further with the plasma and might well form neutrons in subsequent reactions as he suggests. However, this is not the reaction that we are using, and therefore these subsequent reactions can not happen. Please let me explain.

In the simplest form, the EST Spheromak has all of the ions in a single shell, a single ion thick, so assume this for this discussion. When two EST Spheromaks collide (one with H ions, one with B ions), the ion shells interact a la Wells work on TRISOPS. There is no high temperature plasma in the vicinity and none is created during this process. As Davidson noted in a companion paper to Wells, the two TRISOPS spheromaks adhered, but did not coalesce, and the surfaces interacted, and I expect the same thing since calculations support this. Calculations show that the intersecting portions of the ion surfaces will pass back and forth rapidly, thereby giving the ions (p,B) many chances to collide (greater than 1.0 E6/sec). When a collision occurs, the He ions will immediately leave the surface to be absorbed in the containment wall (there is no need of magnetic containment, but a heat absorbing wall is necessary such that heat can be transported for use elsewhere). Since the He does not encounter a high energy plasma, I do not see that Gerhard’s reference applies, and there is no mechanism for neutrons to form. Having said that, this remains to be confirmed experimentally.

Clint "