As a bonus it produces helium, which we've been running low on right? Break out the party balloons!
That shortage is mostly a myth: https://www.wired.com/2016/06/dire-helium-shortage-vastly-in...
Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech?
31–40 of 285 posts
Re: Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech?
#32As a bonus it produces helium, which we've been running low on right? Break out the party balloons!
It's a bit weird to say we're running out of He, not unless we're running out of CH4. Which, theoretically we are.
But practically, with CH4, our modern concern is not running out of it, but the associated GHG emissions of producing and burning it.
So we won't run out of He, so much as stop producing it.
Re: Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech?
#33Can someone explain why this is considered fusion? The reaction involves shooting a proton (hydrogen) at a boron nuclei and outputting 3 alpha particles. That seems more like the nuclei being split apart than fused together.
Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneutronic_fusion
(TLDR version: proton-boron fusion is a less energetically efficient alternative to 3He fusion, but with the howlingly significant advantage that boron -- the fuel -- is lying around in heaps and drifts on Earth, rather than being so exotic a substance that annual global production is measured in single-digit kilograms and a significant energy economy would require mining it from the Lunar regolith. It's not as well-known as 3He fusion, though, because the space cadets don't see the point -- there are no Moon colonies required. Advantages of 3He or B + p fusion over D-T fusion: it doesn't produce a surplus of neutrons, so there's less radioactive waste created as a by-product of the process.)
Re: Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech?
#34Cool thing about this is that it will be a direct energy capture if I understand it correctly. "The hydrogen/boron fusion creates a couple of helium atoms," he continues. "They're naked heliums, they don't have electrons, so they have a positive charge. We just have to collect that charge. Essentially, the lack of electrons is a product of the reaction and it directly creates the current."
Yes it seems like you could generate extreme levels of electrostatic force by collecting the Helium nuclei. Do that on one side of a capacitor, periodically short it out (producing ordinary Helium) to clear both plates, and repeat. So yeah a machine which takes hydrogen and boron and emits helium gas and electricity. Sounds like it's worth doing, at least for the sake of children's birthday parties.
Re: Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech?
#35As a bonus it produces helium, which we've been running low on right? Break out the party balloons!
All fusion produces helium, though. I don't think anyone is looking into fusing heavier atoms.
If you look at the nuclear binding energy curve (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_binding_energy#/media/... ) you'll see a nice bump there for He4. So there's no gain in fusing heavier stuff.
Re: Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech?
#36There is a warning sign. Without actually running the number, I believe the energy generated by the proposed HB11 fusion should be several order of magnitude higher compared to the electric energy alpha particle can carry. So extreme hot temperature will be created regardless.
Edit: actually read the paper :) From the paper: H + 11B = 3 x 4He + 8.7 MeV
when alpha particle absorb the electron to become helium, it can carry about 50 eV energy. So vast majority of the energy generated will be kinetic energy or photon energy which translate into very hot temperature at macro level.
Re: Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech?
#37> First milestone is demonstrating the reactions, which should be easy. They haven’t even demonstrated the reaction? What’s all the talk about results being “billions” of times better than expected?
Simulations.
Re: Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech?
#38My nuclear fusion physicist friend is very sceptical.
Re: Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech?
#39As a bonus it produces helium, which we've been running low on right? Break out the party balloons!
It's a bit weird to say we're running out of He, not unless we're running out of CH4. Which, theoretically we are. But practically, with CH4, our modern concern is not running out of it, but the associated GHG emissions of producing and burning it. So we won't run out of He, so much as stop producing it.
It might be less confusing to refer to 'natural gas' in this context, rather than CH4.
Re: Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech?
#40Cool thing about this is that it will be a direct energy capture if I understand it correctly. "The hydrogen/boron fusion creates a couple of helium atoms," he continues. "They're naked heliums, they don't have electrons, so they have a positive charge. We just have to collect that charge. Essentially, the lack of electrons is a product of the reaction and it directly creates the current."
Yes it seems like you could generate extreme levels of electrostatic force by collecting the Helium nuclei. Do that on one side of a capacitor, periodically short it out (producing ordinary Helium) to clear both plates, and repeat. So yeah a machine which takes hydrogen and boron and emits helium gas and electricity. Sounds like it's worth doing, at least for the sake of children's birthday parties.
Helium is limited on earth and we need it to cool things like MRIs and other massive electromagnets.
Apart from literally saving humanity from a climate disaster, we can still use our MRIs!