3 ms·
Aneutronic, not radiation free.
by meepmorp 13y ago
Aneutronic, not radiation free.
- batbomb 13y agoIt's emitting alpha particles, but the energies are pretty low.
- meepmorp 13y agoI assume you meant emitting. Omitting alpha particles isn't a problem.
- ISL 13y agoYes, but that's very important. Alphas, especially slow ones, are easy to stop and are good at heating things. Free neutrons are hard to stop and can activate nearby material. An a-neutronic process, especially a clever one that works with comparatively low energies, can be important.
- meepmorp 13y agoSure, if there was no radiation at all, it'd be utterly useless.
- DennisP 13y agoAnd since alphas are charged particles, you may even be able to generate electricity without going through a steam cycle. Tri-Alpha and Lawrenceville Plasma Physics are both planning to do it that way, and papers on petawatt laser fusion with boron have mentioned the same. Resulting energy costs could be dramatically cheaper than fossil.
- Natsu 13y agoI was about to ask about this, because I thought someone proved that it was impossible to get enough energy from aneutronic reactions, and the neutrons cause nuclear activation, which in turn makes the reaction a lot less clean than we'd like.