Talk-Polywell.org

I'm sure that this would fall under the catagory of a stupid question, but as I understand the theory of how this works, the electricity is generated from the alpha particles grabbing electrons and thus creating holes/current, and the positively charged collector shell slows down the alphas so that there is no collision beforehand to eliminate damage caused by high radiation bombardment.

My question is geared more toward the hobbyist level than in a full power plant, and doesn't even involve fusion, but could this energy transfer to current occur by using a small alpha source interacting with a conductive source at close proximity or does the energy transfer have to occur without a collision?

The energy generation is not so much from the electro-chemical action of the ion grabbing up an electron (several eV of energy) but rather from that electron being at ~MV of potential when it does so. It is the deceleration of the ion against the electric field of 1+MV that does the trick. The "collision" at the end merely closes the circuit so to speak and lets the electron flow.

You will be able to generate the most power if the voltage of your system is related to the energy level of your source, no matter what the source.

So again, my understanding is that all alpha particles have a specific activity around 5 MeV - including those generated by the fusion reaction, therefore could the same energy conversion process occur at a small scale using an alpha source instead of fusion?

Wyreless wrote:So again, my understanding is that all alpha particles have a specific activity around 5 MeV - including those generated by the fusion reaction, therefore could the same energy conversion process occur at a small scale using an alpha source instead of fusion?

The answer is "Yes." You might find the results of a Google search on the key words, "Atomic Battery" to be informative.