Re: Fusion chain reaction?
- From: Edward Ruden <rudenbz001@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:36:14 +0000 (UTC)
Colliding a beam of deuterium ions into a target loaded with tritum is
a common way to produce a burst of high energy neutrons via D-T fusion
(there are applications for that). The shortcoming of this approach is
that net nuclear energy gain is impossible this way because the fusion
cross section is relatively small, and not every collision results in
one. Once the D starts bouncing around inside the target, momentum
transfer to the T's due to collisions causes the D to loose energy too
fast for the stray fusion reaction to make up for it, on average.
This is why the target must be very hot. If the target is hot enough
(10 keV or more), and in thermal equilbrium, collisions no longer
result in an average loss of energy, and the energy is effectively
confined within the plasma. If it's hot enough and confined long
enough (the Lawson Criterion), net energy gain is achieved.
.
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