Talk-Polywell.org

I was thinking that side reactions may be really negligible for D-D fusion. Primary reactions are : D + D -> 3He + n + 3.27 MeV (50%) (1) D +D -> T + p + 18.34 MeV (50%) (2) Side reaction : D + T -> 4He + n + 17.6 MeV (3) D + 3He -> 4He + p (4) In a system as a tokamak and some other fusion reactors...

Maybe the best is to ask directly to Dr Bussard. Or maybe Tom Ligon knows.

Some side reactions described here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneutronic_fusion

11B + alpha -> 14N + n + 157 keV
11B + p -> 11C + n - 2.8 MeV
11B + p -> 12C + gamma + 16 MeV
As the hydrogen is not pure :
11B + D -> 12C + n + 13.7 MeV
D + D -> 3He + n + 3.27 MeV

Bombs don't use tritium directly. These use lithium. Tritium is a bitch to store, and there is the problem of purity. He3, its end-product, is a neutron killer. Instead they use lithium deuteride, which is solid but the neutrons from a fission bomb make lithium produce tritium. To trigger a Teller-...

Some paranoiac ideas : Natural uranium is quite easy to obtain, and can be converted to plutonium with the neutrons generated by a fusion reactor. It is also possible to produce U233 by neutrons irradiation of Th232, and U233 is fissile (but also difficult to use to make a bomb because it is a stron...

The Lawson criterion was published in 1957.
The Coulomb barrier is generally a few MeV high for most reactions (and fusion occurs by tunnel effect), it was already known.

Some among this board believe that fission is not worth its cause. This is not true. Most issues of fission reactors has been dealt with, and so-called problems already have a solution. Well, discuss. It's fine with me if people want to discuss that here — this is sort of the place for off-topic di...

Zixinus wrote:The idea of using pure H-H reaction somehow seems ridiculous to me, for starters, it takes more energy that what is given. Surely, the Doc didn't though of doing that.

It seems ridiculous now, but in 1955-1960 ? I think that the Lawson criterium was not so well understood at this time.

The original version of the ramjet, that was supposed to burn directly H+H was not feasible, because of the very low reaction rate, but further versions, that use the collected hydrogen mostly as a reaction mass may be more credible.
http://www.daviddarling.info/encycloped ... amjet.html

Some famous reference papers from Dr Bussard : http://www.askmar.com/Fusion_files/The%20QED%20Engine.pdf http://www.askmar.com/Fusion_files/Inertial-Electrostatic-Fusion%20Propulsion.pdf http://www.askmar.com/ConferenceNotes/2006-9%20IAC%20Paper.pdf A recent thesis on another type of IEC reactor : h...