NASA reports on something called lattice confinement fusion

[Munchausen]

https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/space/science ... nt-fusion/

"A team of NASA researchers seeking a new energy source for deep-space exploration missions, recently revealed a method for triggering nuclear fusion in the space between the atoms of a metal solid."

"While the metal lattice, loaded with deuterium fuel, may initially appear to be at room temperature, the new method creates an energetic environment inside the lattice where individual atoms achieve equivalent fusion-level kinetic energies."

The papers referenced were beyond my comprehension but there were no figures on energy gain or any clues to why this should work at all.

The article makes this statement:

"In addition to measuring fusion reaction neutrons, the Glenn Team also observed the production of even more energetic neutrons which is evidence of boosted fusion reactions or screened Oppenheimer-Phillips (O-P) nuclear stripping reactions with the metal lattice atoms. Either reaction opens a path to process scaling."

[Skipjack]

IIRC, I read that they are still many orders of magnitude away from Q~1. The whole lattice confinement idea is not really all that new either. I remember reading about it a decade or so ago. Color me skeptical.

[hanelyp]

Sounds like a return of Pons Fleischmann cold fusion.

[paperburn1]

If it just gets warm it would be a boost to deep space exploration. Like a RTG, as a portable heat source.

[Munchausen]

It is getting some attention:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/scienc ... nt-fusion/

https://asiatimes.com/2020/09/nasa-land ... ar-fusion/

[Skipjack]

Uhm NASA says it, so it must be more than just an early stage speculative experiment... NOT...
I have serious doubts about this to say the least. That said, if they could make it work, it would be great. I won't be holding my breath though.

[Darky]

It is a carefully worded announcement on progress in "cold-fusion" field, more or less.
Detection of neutrons from deuterated erbium/titanium bombarded by high-energy photons, both in "classic fusion" and hypothetical "electron-screened" ways.

[happyjack27]

sounds like pons-fleishmann cold fusion.
...which btw i feel should be renamed to something like "solid state fusion", or "condensed matter fusion".

[Carl White]

A new IEEE article on this:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/lattice-confinement-fusion

To be sure that we were actually producing fusion in our vials of erbium deuteride and titanium deuteride, we used neutron spectroscopy. This technique detects the neutrons that result from fusion reactions. When deuteron-deuteron fusion produces a helium-3 nucleus and a neutron, that neutron has an energy of 2.45 MeV. So when we detected 2.45 MeV neutrons, we knew fusion had occurred. That’s when we published our initial results in Physical Review C.

We’re not alone in these endeavors. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California, with funding from Google Research, achieved favorable results with a similar electron-screened fusion setup. Researchers at the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, in Maryland have likewise gotten promising initial results using an electrochemical approach to LCF. There are also upcoming conferences: the American Nuclear Society’s Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space conference in Cleveland in May and the International Conference on Cold Fusion 24, focused on solid-state energy, in Mountain View, Calif., in July.

[JoeStrout]

I read that IEEE article today. It made me wonder: could a similar lattice-confinement, electron-screening trick be done with hydrogen/boron? We all know aneutronic fusion is much easier to get power out of, and produces much less radioactive unpleasantness. So it seems worth looking into.