Cluster impact fusion
Cluster Impact Fusion is a suggested method of producing practical fusion power using small clusters of heavy water molecules directly accelerated into a titanium-deuteride target. Calculations suggested that such a system enhanced the cross section by many orders of magnitude. It is a particular implementation of the larger beam-target fusion concept.
The idea was first reported by researchers at Brookhaven in 1989.[1][2] Intrigued by recent reports of cold fusion, they attempted to study potential causes for the effect by accelerating tiny droplets of heavy water, about 25 to 1300 D2O molecules each, into a target at about 220 eV. To their surprise they immediately saw fusion effects, at a rate that was many times what any of them could explain via conventional theory.[3]
The experiment was fairly simple in concept but required an appropriate accelerator, so it was some time before other labs were able to repeat the experiments.[4] One of the first was the University of Washington, who reported a null result in 1991. Further experiments and a review from MIT in 1992 solved the mystery: the fusion products were the results of contamination, which could be eliminated by filtering with a magnet.[5][6][7] The Brookhaven experimenters tried this and the effect disappeared.
Cluster impact fusion references end abruptly at that point.[citation needed]
See also
[edit]- Impact fusion, which fires Macron (physics) or other projectiles into fuel to compress and heat it
References
[edit]- ^ Beuhler, R. J.; Friedlander, G.; Friedman, L. (1989-09-18). "Cluster-impact fusion". Physical Review Letters. 63 (12): 1292–1295. Bibcode:1989PhRvL..63.1292B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.63.1292. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 10040525.
- ^ Yang, S. N.; Cheng, Yi-Chen; Hwang, W.; Lee, Shyh-Tzong; Wu, C. (1991). "Cluster-Impact Fusion and Warm Atomic Plasma" (PDF). Chinese Journal of Physics. 29 (4): 385. Bibcode:1991ChJPh..29..385Y. S2CID 230385503. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ^ Carraro, C.; Chen, B. Q.; Schramm, S.; Koonin, S. E. (1990-08-01). "Estimates of cluster-impact fusion yields". Physical Review A. 42 (3): 1379–1389. Bibcode:1990PhRvA..42.1379C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.42.1379. PMID 9904168.
- ^ Rabinowitz, Mario (1990-05-20). "Cluster-Impact Fusion: New Physics or Experimental Error". Modern Physics Letters B. 04 (10): 665–671. Bibcode:1990MPLB....4..665R. doi:10.1142/S0217984990000830. ISSN 0217-9849.
- ^ Thomson, Elizabeth A. (13 May 1992). "Cluster Fusion Is Illusion PFC Physicists Find". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on 2019-01-09. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ^ Kim, Y. E.; Rabinowitz, M.; Bae, Y. K.; Chulick, G. S.; Rice, R. A. (1992). "Hot plasma shock-wave theory of cluster-impact fusion". AIP Conference Proceedings. 250. Nikko (Japan): AIP: 321–343. Bibcode:1992AIPC..250..321K. doi:10.1063/1.42021.
- ^ Kim, Y. E.; Yoon, J.-H.; Rice, R. A.; Rabinowitz, M. (1992). "Cluster-impact fusion and effective deuteron temperature". Physical Review Letters. 68 (3): 373–376. arXiv:nucl-th/0304066. Bibcode:1992PhRvL..68..373K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.68.373. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 10045875. S2CID 25205387.