[ RadSafe ] More Fusion

[JPreisig at aol.com]

Hmmmmmm,

     This is from:    jpreisig at aol.com   .


     Dear Radsafe Types,

           Hope you all are well.  In what year(s) did the University of 
Pittsburgh
     disappear from the Health Physics MS/MA degree scene???  Just
     asking.

           One could have some chance at building a simple colliding beam
      facility using two 200 keV particle accelerators, two bending magnets,
      vacuum pumps, piping, etc.  One needs bending magnets so one does
      not shoot deuterium beams directly from one particle accelerator at
      another.  One probably will need some focusing magnets also.
      Maybe this was all done 30-40 years ago???  I don't know.

           The knock on doing this is attenuation losses in the vacuum pipes
      around the collision region, among other things.  I think the Nuclear
      Physics books by Segre and/or Kaplan discuss all this.  Getting all the
      deuterium to collide is also a problem.  One could recycle uncollided
      deuterium for re-use???  DO NOT suck all unused deuterium into
      your mechnical and/or diffusion pumps.

           Around the collision region vacuum pipes one needs to have a 
chamber
      containing water or what have you to capture the neutron energy for use 
      in heating or boiling water.  This energy will drive an electricity 
producing
      turbine???

           In the collision region, the vacuum pipes need to be thick enough 
to
      keep a reasonably good vacuum.  But, also, one needs thin beam pipes
      in the collision region to lessen losses due to neutron energy lost in 
the
      beam pipes.  Perhaps one could use ceramic (or other materials) as
      beam pipes in the collision region.  Perhaps materials advances allow us
      to do things that we couldn't do 40 years ago.

           Clearly, as one starts doing this, construction costs will continue
      to elevate.  Perhaps, Franz, Austria has a small budget for doing such a
      project???  I don't have such a budget.

           Anyway, ITER (the new international fusion effort) will soon be 
going
      forward with another 40 years of fusion research.  I wish them luck.

           Kaplan and/or Segre have something to say about use of Polonium 
     as part of a neutron source.  Po-210??? ---> a 5 MeV alpha and a
     many day half-life seems like a pretty nasty way to do in someome,
     whether by ingestion, inhalation or whatever.  Neutron sources sometimes
     have (moderately sealed) screw-cap assemblies, so maybe someone from
     a research lab could have access to Po-210.  The guy who died did not
     look very happy to pass on in this manner.

          As for television, the Philo Farnswoth fellow had a hand in 
television 
     invention.  Vladimir Zworykin and his colleagues had a hand in inventing
     television at RCA Labs in Princeton, NJ also.  See history books on the 
     subject???

           A research group beating ITER in its fusion efforts (by many years)
     would probably become quite wealthy.  Too bad Fermi isn't around to
     advance fusion, the way he advanced fission.

           See also the internet about self-colliding beam (migma) fusion,
     advanced by Bogdan Maglich.  One could also have a deuterium beam
     (from an accelerator) directed at a deuterium and/or tritium 
fixed-target.

            Once one starts to make 2 MeV or 15 MeV neutrons via (D,D)
     or (D,T) fusion, one has to start shielding the accelerator room.  Also,
     one has to start worrying about neutron activation.

            You all have a nice day.

            Regards,         Joseph R. (Joe) Preisig,  Ph.D.