LENR that works for commercial power generation

This topic is strictly speaking correct:
Low energy (< 30kJ required to ignite)
Nuclear ( true p + B11 -> 4alpha + 5.6MeV)

However it depends on ultra-high power.

Why is this technology awesome?
(1) It is enabled by ultra-high-power ps lasers, technology that is new and developing rapidly.
(2) It is truely aneutronic
(3) It has possible direct conversion (I'm always unsure about whether this can be got to work - but if it can this looks to have about ideal conditions)
(4) It has supporting theory and experimental results
(5) It is the most viable of the p-B11 alternative fusion techniques by far
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And now for something more fun…

I guess many here have already noted this, but its new to me.

This looks like a really viable route to economic H-B fusion

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1603/1603.02579.pdf

It works by:

30kJ ps laser pulse ignites H-B using non-thermal ponderomotive force

avalanche (secondary) reactions from multiple alphas hitting nuclei increase gain (and therefore effective cross-section

1.5KT ns magnetic fields from another laser trap alphas long enough for secondary reactions to achieve very high gain

Claimed GJ power from 30kJ ignition. 1.4MeV potential needed to do direct conversion – looks feasible at very high efficiency.

This is awesome technology and I’m excited because it depends on ultra-high power short pulse lasers, and this is technology that continues to improve. But – theoretically – this technique should achieve high gain from H-B fusion because all it really needs is ultra-high magnetic field containment of alphas for 1 ns or so, and this has been shown to work.

Eric, you could read it because it contains a number of exciting technological ideas all supported by good experiments with known underlying theory, and very cleverly indicates a possible low cost route to aneutronic fusion.

I'm not saying it will work, but can't see the deal-breakers.

Some things that are relevant:

• It builds on previous work with progress (in terms of better fusion results) at each step.
• It has numerical theory that has been (in various places) experimentally verified.
• The theory is predictive in the sense that experiments motivated to prove it, where it makes new predictions, have confirmed it.

Of course work as good as this gets published - I found you a free version, but a similar paper is here:
Laser and Particle Beams / Volume 33 / Issue 04 / December 2015, pp 607-619
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015

However this journal even though CUP published has a falling impact factor only 1.2 (88/148 in Physics, Applied).

It is new work (as a "this might work for real" idea) and speculative - worth watching citations and related work. I'd especially like to see some decent critiques.

The only one I'd maybe be competent for is checking what is the likely alpha energy variation due to c-o-m movement of the p-B reactants. I think the losses due to unmatched alpha collectors are likely to be higher than the claimed a few %.

PS - GH Miley co-publishes some of this stuff - does that allow LENR advocates to like it?

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The main pitfall which the authors did not answer is the direct conversion of Alpha(He)2+ current into any usable amount of current, not to speak about voltage (to drive the current).

They have a standard design - a spherical collector. The high K.E. alphas will be ejected from the sample and be decelerated going up a 1.4MeV potential to hit the collector. It has been looked at many times and the needed topology looks ok but it is still speculative. The current travels via the alphas over the 1.4MV potential, with the return circuit being electrons leaving the sample via a single insulated wire.

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This definitively needs some more work. (As in the R.Mills case...)

Not as in R Mills case. He has neither experimental nor theoretical evidence for his claims. And they make no sense. Also he has been trying unsuccessfully to prove them for 25 years.

The real questions I can see here:

• does the claimed ns 1.5kT field induced by a laser work
• does the avalanche reaction effect self-sustain
• is the overall gain of laser to drive containment vs energy released work out.

Direct conversion is not a requirement for commercial fusion.

All have determinable answers but I have not looked at the supporting material much.

Anyway - I like alternative fusion ideas that rely on lasers for the obvious technological reasons (high power laser tech goes on getting better with no clear fundamental limits to continued progress).

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Thomas It will do nicely to detract from some of the errors you appear to be making with your Lugarno critique?Best regardsFrank

Frank. There are no errors in my published comment (well, some tiny ones, as always, but no new errors nor relevant ones). Nor errors in the conclusions I have drawn from it. Nor anything new that contradicts all that.

I'll happily go on discussing this new though rather pointless investigation of the dummy test figures if anyone wants. It is interesting.

I think your comment here is beneath you: both in its implication of deceit (not likely given my tenacious character as you should well know) and in the "spin" implication that there is anything wrong with the previous analysis. That is false.

Would you care to retract that, or else substantiate it. I'll happily continue the discussion to show you whey you cannot do that (I've written it - if you read).

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Alphas have a spectrum! Some will shoot into the wall others wont reach it.

Yes, well that is why I said I'm suspicious of direct conversion schemes. The alpha spectrum just means you lose efficiency, and there are more complex (purely electrostatic) collection methods dealing with this. I'm not sure anyone could get an overall efficiency higher than 90%. And while magnetic methods might end up highest efficiency they are inherently more complex. That does however in no way invalidate this as an economic reactor concept - assuming the secondary reactions work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_energy_conversion

Tom

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Its about high energy ignition of LASER-Fusion simmilar to the useless Livermore T-D Fusion Experiment.

30kJ is high?

And, other than the fact it is more likely to work than "classic" LENR, why call it useless? It is technically very different from laser T-D.

I doubt it would work, but it is a neat idea that deserves a chance and is aneutronic and potentially shows very large gain because for a short period (in a 10kT magnetic field) the H-B possibly burns with an alpha-mediated chain reaction.

I find it astonishing people here are not more enthusiastic.