Re: Editor's Reply to Plasma Technology Story

["H. Wei\_, Kiel" <weiss@ki.comcity.de>]

Hello Mr. Still,

as you might know, a plasma is matter in a state where bindings inside 
the atoms are overcome by the high energy of its elementary particles. In 
a cold plasma, only the electrons are stripped, while the nucleus is 
still unaffected. In a hot plasma, the energies are higher than the 
binding energies inside the nucleus, so that these are cracked. Thus 
protons and neutrons get mixed up and you get a new mixture of nucleus'. 
Whether this is better or worse than the original mixture is an 
interesting question, which is beyond my scope.

As StarTech people might know, this is a technically highly demanding 
solution, because particle energies are needed similar to those in a 
fusion reactor, and it demands enormous energy inputs. I doubt, moreover, 
whether time has already come to use such techniques other than in lab 
dimensions. Sounds a little as science fiction to me, too.

Harald Weiß, Dipl.-Phys.