[ RadSafe ] Nuclear fusion coming soon

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

I agree with Brent, except given the way people cycle through tours of
duty on ships, the shipyard workers who do repairs and refits, and the
political people who would be in a position to know, the number of
people who would have to be in on keeping the secret would be in the
hundreds of thousands.  

Plus the criteria for a power plant for a ship is rather different from
a stationary plant on shore.  Unless a fusion reactor has a higher
output power/mass-volume ratio than a conventional or fission plant,
there would be no reason to use one to power a ship (the tradeoff
between conventional an nuke not always being driven by technical or
strategic considerations).

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Brent Rogers
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2011 1:30 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Cc: radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Nuclear fusion coming soon

Hard to imagine it taking place on an aircraft carrier.  6000 sets of
loose lips is too many to sink not the ship for 25 years.

Brent Rogers
Sydney Australia

Sent from my iPad

On 08/07/2011, at 10:15, JPreisig at aol.com wrote:

> Hello again,
> 
>     This is from:     _jpreisig at aol.com_ (mailto:jpreisig at aol.com)
.
> 
> 
>      As far back as 1975 or so, the  Migma  (self colliding beam of
ions) 
> people were working on
> aneutronic fusion reactions,  This work generally involved collisions
of 
> ions which were a bit
> heavier than deuterium and/or tritium, thus resulting in fusion
occuring  
> without the everpresent
> 2 to 15 MeV neutrons.  These energetic neutrons cause materials damage
(in 
> time) of the fusion
> magnets, reaction chamber, etc.  The physics literature and perhaps
the 
> internet have more 
> information on aneutronic reactions.
> 
>     In deuterium and/or tritium based fusion  reactions, 2 to 15 MeV 
> neutrons are typically 
> produced,  For the purpose of retrieving the neutron energy (for
energy 
> production purposes), one 
> can surround the fusion reaction region with water and might
eventually  
> produce boiling and/or
> pressurized water which would go to a heat exchanger and then would  
> eventually drive a
> turbine.  Cool, huh???
> 
>     For an aneutronic fusion source, I guess one can  try to retrieve 
> energy from the end products of
> the reaction process.  Easier said then done????  Won't the  heavier 
> reaction products be
> contained in the central reaction area, and perhaps these heavy end  
> products will actually be
> consumed by the fusion plasma????  I could see heavy end products at
the 
> outer regions of the plasma, escaping from being consumed by the
plasma.  
> Some end products will end up heating the magnets,
> reaction chamber and the like.
> 
>     Of course, the great Hofmyer (Oz???) has spoken  and none of this 
> fusion stuff will work
> at all.   Hmmmm.
> 
>     So, if fusion is a no go, then let's use enriched  uranium and/or 
> plutonium for space flight, and
> also try to also use fast neutrons from fission also.  Let's get  that
Fast 
> Fission Test Reactor
> back online, fuel it up, and try to understand fast neutron fission
physics 
> better???!!!!
> 
>     Once this next shuttle launch is over, we'll be  depending on the 
> Soviets to transport our USA etc.
> astronauts to the space station.  Oh my!!!!
> 
>      My guess is that a fusion reactor is  working somewhere at a US 
> military base or on a US
> aircraft carrier.  Some of the original migma people are sitting on
the 
> deck of the aircraft carrier,
> drinking mixed drinks, in their Hawaiian shirts and , in general, they
are 
> smiling a great deal.
> Of course, the average US citizen won't be allowed to hear about all
this  
> for another 25
> years.  Cold war is still going on, right????  You can't spell
Enriched 
> without Enrico!!!!
> Stagg Field....UChicago....etc and so on.  I doubt the physicists in
the 
> Manhattan project
> were prima donnas... most of them knew their stuff.
> 
> 
>      Regards,    Joseph R. (Joe)  Preisig, PhD
> 
> 
> 
> 
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