5 ms·

None. It's just a cool amateur electronics project. Energy in >> energy out. In fact, I'm assuming and hoping for the sake of his neighbours that he's not actu

by hugh3 15y ago

None. It's just a cool amateur electronics project. Energy in >> energy out. In fact, I'm assuming and hoping for the sake of his neighbours that he's not actually attempting fusion. If I recall correctly, doing actual fusion with one of these requires deuterium and tritium and produces a crapload of neutrons for which I really doubt he has adequate shielding. I'm pretty sure the experiment which he's attempting to replicate was never done with deuterium-tritium either, for similar reasons.

sp332 15y ago
I'm not sure about this one, but I know polywell reactors can be hot enough to use deuterium-deuterium reactions. It's cheaper, easier to extract energy from, and leaves stable helium nuclei with no stray neutrons.
- sbierwagen 15y ago
  Nope. D-D fusion produces a 2.54 MeV neutron 50% of the time.
sbierwagen 15y ago
In fact, I'm assuming and hoping for the sake of his neighbours that he's not actually attempting fusion. If I recall correctly, doing actual fusion with one of these requires deuterium and tritium and produces a crapload of neutrons for which I really doubt he has adequate shielding. Yes and no. The very lowest-energy-threshold fusion reaction is deuterium-tritium, so must research tokamak reactors use that. The JET[1], ITER[2], et al. But tritium is both expensive and excitingly dangerous, (It's an alpha emitter, which is ordinarily harmless, since the alpha particles aren't energetic enough to penetrate skin; but it's a radioactive gas, not a solid, so you can inhale it and get all sorts of amusing cancers) so real amateurs prefer Deuterium-Deuterium fusion, and the kind of fusion reactor that that produce the higher energies needed to accomplish it, known as fusors[3]. D-D fusion does produce neutrons, you are correct. But the PF reactor is a pulsed device, with a tiny coil size: it doesn't make many neutrons, and it produces them for seconds at a time. This guy has been checked out by the NYFD, and they've signed off on the project. If it was a power reactor, neutron emission would be a problem, but it's not, so it ain't. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER 3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor
- cperciva 15y ago
  tritium is both expensive and excitingly dangerous, (It's an alpha emitter... Err... you sure about that? Must be some interesting physics going on for a p-n-n to emit a p-p-n-n. ;-) I'm guessing you meant beta emitter?
  - sbierwagen 15y ago
    Whoops! You are correct.
- mhb 15y ago
  This guy has been checked out by the NYFD Well, OK then. Important safety tip: Don't cross the streams.

by hugh3 15y ago

sp332 15y ago

I'm not sure about this one, but I know polywell reactors can be hot enough to use deuterium-deuterium reactions. It's cheaper, easier to extract energy from, and leaves stable helium nuclei with no stray neutrons.

sbierwagen 15y ago
Nope. D-D fusion produces a 2.54 MeV neutron 50% of the time.

sbierwagen 15y ago

In fact, I'm assuming and hoping for the sake of his neighbours that he's not actually attempting fusion. If I recall correctly, doing actual fusion with one of these requires deuterium and tritium and produces a crapload of neutrons for which I really doubt he has adequate shielding. Yes and no. The very lowest-energy-threshold fusion reaction is deuterium-tritium, so must research tokamak reactors use that. The JET[1], ITER[2], et al. But tritium is both expensive and excitingly dangerous, (It's an alpha emitter, which is ordinarily harmless, since the alpha particles aren't energetic enough to penetrate skin; but it's a radioactive gas, not a solid, so you can inhale it and get all sorts of amusing cancers) so real amateurs prefer Deuterium-Deuterium fusion, and the kind of fusion reactor that that produce the higher energies needed to accomplish it, known as fusors[3]. D-D fusion does produce neutrons, you are correct. But the PF reactor is a pulsed device, with a tiny coil size: it doesn't make many neutrons, and it produces them for seconds at a time. This guy has been checked out by the NYFD, and they've signed off on the project. If it was a power reactor, neutron emission would be a problem, but it's not, so it ain't. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER 3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor

cperciva 15y ago
tritium is both expensive and excitingly dangerous, (It's an alpha emitter... Err... you sure about that? Must be some interesting physics going on for a p-n-n to emit a p-p-n-n. ;-) I'm guessing you meant beta emitter?
- sbierwagen 15y ago
  Whoops! You are correct.
mhb 15y ago
This guy has been checked out by the NYFD Well, OK then. Important safety tip: Don't cross the streams.