5 ms·

I would love for this to work as an energy source. The usual limitation seems to be that it's only a tiny minority of places in the lattice that have the right

by tlb 6y ago

I would love for this to work as an energy source. The usual limitation seems to be that it's only a tiny minority of places in the lattice that have the right geometry to enable fusion, perhaps because because it's under strain from a nearby defect. When fusion events happen, it's likely to rearrange several nearby atoms. So you run out of the special lattice locations after a while. You can, of course, melt and re-cast the metal and hope to have a new crop of active lattice points, and it becomes a question of how much energy in vs. energy out.

pharke 6y ago
That sounds more like an engineering problem. As long as you can reliably produce grains or pellets of the metal with enough lattice locations to produce a net positive amount of energy then the problem becomes simply how do you move those grains through the x-ray beam at the required rate while capturing the energy. Perhaps suspending them in a carrier fluid that could also act as a medium for heat transfer.
- s1artibartfast 6y ago
  I think they were saying the challenge would be getting net positive energy from the metal for the reason they mentioned.
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
No worries. You just let the reaction run hot enough that it melts down the lattice. When it cools, you'll have a new crop of active lattice points. (I'm kidding... I think.)
pharke 6y ago
If increasing the number of places in the lattice where fusion can occur is the problem it would really just be a matter of experimentation with different techniques for allowing the lattice to be further saturated. The article seems to indicate that these results give them a clear way forward. I took the parent comment to mean that the lattice would only be essentially one time use which to me doesn't seem a problem as long as you can get sufficient energy out of it to make up for 1) using an x-ray beam to ignite the reaction and 2) the energy input necessary to create the usable lattice.

by tlb 6y ago

pharke 6y ago

That sounds more like an engineering problem. As long as you can reliably produce grains or pellets of the metal with enough lattice locations to produce a net positive amount of energy then the problem becomes simply how do you move those grains through the x-ray beam at the required rate while capturing the energy. Perhaps suspending them in a carrier fluid that could also act as a medium for heat transfer.

s1artibartfast 6y ago
I think they were saying the challenge would be getting net positive energy from the metal for the reason they mentioned.

AnimalMuppet 6y ago

No worries. You just let the reaction run hot enough that it melts down the lattice. When it cools, you'll have a new crop of active lattice points. (I'm kidding... I think.)

pharke 6y ago

If increasing the number of places in the lattice where fusion can occur is the problem it would really just be a matter of experimentation with different techniques for allowing the lattice to be further saturated. The article seems to indicate that these results give them a clear way forward. I took the parent comment to mean that the lattice would only be essentially one time use which to me doesn't seem a problem as long as you can get sufficient energy out of it to make up for 1) using an x-ray beam to ignite the reaction and 2) the energy input necessary to create the usable lattice.