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Fusion overall is harder than fission. Is the direct energy capture part also harder for glowy fusion gas than scary fission rocks?
by Intralexical 2y ago
Fusion overall is harder than fission.
Is the direct energy capture part also harder for glowy fusion gas than scary fission rocks?
- selectodude 2y agoI think the concepts are the same but the execution (heat up water with plasma) is still a work in progress.
- Intralexical 2y agoThat's the "thermal middleman" part they're trying to cut out. By analogy, compare Concentrated Solar Power versus Photovoltaics.
- thayne 2y agoI think in a Deutritium-Tritium fusion reaction a lot the energy is in the neutron. And since neutrons are neutral you can't really directly convert that into electrical energy.
- DennisP 2y agoYep, for D-T 80% of the energy is in neutrons. Helion is using D-D/D-He3, and for that it's about 5% in neutrons, and most of the rest in fast-moving charged particles. So they have a simple way to extract electricity directly. They squeeze the plasma with a magnetic field from a copper coil, then there's an explosion of charged particles, which pushes back against the magnetic field and causes electricity to flow in the coil.
- sigmoid10 2y agoD-D (which they are going for right now) is still 50% neutrons. D-He3 is the only aneutronic reaction, but it has tons of other issues.
- DennisP 2y agoAs I said, the combined reaction generates 5% of its energy as neutron radiation. The reason it's only 5% is that D-He3 is a much more energetic reaction. The main issue with D-He3 is that it's more difficult.
- sigmoid10 2y agoThat's what I said. But all things equal, D-D is definitely not the best path for direct energy production because of the vast amount of neutrons.