Posted on 12/13/2017 9:29:46 AM PST by Red Badger
A laser-driven technique for creating fusion that dispenses with the need for radioactive fuel elements and leaves no toxic radioactive waste is now within reach, say researchers.
Dramatic advances in powerful, high-intensity lasers are making it viable for scientists to pursue what was once thought impossible: creating fusion energy based on hydrogen-boron reactions. And an Australian physicist is in the lead, armed with a patented design and working with international collaborators on the remaining scientific challenges.
In a paper in the scientific journal Laser and Particle Beams today, lead author Heinrich Hora from the University of New South Wales in Sydney and international colleagues argue that the path to hydrogen-boron fusion is now viable, and may be closer to realization than other approaches, such as the deuterium-tritium fusion approach being pursued by U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor under construction in France.
"I think this puts our approach ahead of all other fusion energy technologies," said Hora, who predicted in the 1970s that fusing hydrogen and boron might be possible without the need for thermal equilibrium. Rather than heat fuel to the temperature of the Sun using massive, high-strength magnets to control superhot plasmas inside a doughnut-shaped toroidal chamber (as in NIF and ITER), hydrogen-boron fusion is achieved using two powerful lasers in rapid bursts, which apply precise non-linear forces to compress the nuclei together.
Hydrogen-boron fusion produces no neutrons and, therefore, no radioactivity in its primary reaction. And unlike most other sources of power production - like coal, gas and nuclear, which rely on heating liquids like water to drive turbines - the energy generated by hydrogen-boron fusion converts directly into electricity. But the downside has always been that this needs much higher temperatures and densities - almost 3 billion degrees Celsius, or 200 times hotter than the core of the Sun.
However, dramatic advances in laser technology are close to making the two-laser approach feasible, and a spate of recent experiments around the world indicate that an 'avalanche' fusion reaction could be triggered in the trillionth-of-a-second blast from a petawatt-scale laser pulse, whose fleeting bursts pack a quadrillion watts of power. If scientists could exploit this avalanche, Hora said, a breakthrough in proton-boron fusion was imminent.
"It is a most exciting thing to see these reactions confirmed in recent experiments and simulations," said Hora, an emeritus professor of theoretical physics at UNSW. "Not just because it proves some of my earlier theoretical work, but they have also measured the laser-initiated chain reaction to create one billion-fold higher energy output than predicted under thermal equilibrium conditions."
Together with 10 colleagues in six nations - including from Israel's Soreq Nuclear Research Centre and the University of California, Berkeley - Hora describes a roadmap for the development of hydrogen-boron fusion based on his design, bringing together recent breakthroughs and detailing what further research is needed to make the reactor a reality.
An Australian spin-off company, HB11 Energy, holds the patents for Hora's process. "If the next few years of research don't uncover any major engineering hurdles, we could have prototype reactor within a decade," said Warren McKenzie, managing director of HB11.
"From an engineering perspective, our approach will be a much simpler project because the fuels and waste are safe, the reactor won't need a heat exchanger and steam turbine generator, and the lasers we need can be bought off the shelf," he added.
Explore further: New hope for ultimate clean energy: fusion power
More information: H. Hora et al, Road map to clean energy using laser beam ignition of boron-hydrogen fusion, Laser and Particle Beams (2017). DOI: 10.1017/S0263034617000799
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-12-laser-driven-technique-fusion.html#jCp
Just what we need, more Kenny G......oh wait, wrong kind of Fusion.
An Australian spin-off company, HB11 Energy, holds the patents for Hora’s process. “If the next few years of research don’t uncover any major engineering hurdles, we could have prototype reactor within a decade,” said Warren McKenzie, managing director of HB11.
...
In other words, it’s a scam.
Re: “...the energy generated by hydrogen-boron fusion converts directly into electricity.”
I don’t understand how that is possible.
My thanks to anyone who has a brief explanation about how that works.
> within a decade,
Wow! Fusion energy, a cancer cure and a diabetes cure in 10 years. Unfortunately the earth only has a decade remaining due to global warming.
My guess is they’re thinking of having the plasma pass through a magnetic field.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetohydrodynamic_generator
I think they are talking about this process:
“...more recent research done by companies developing nuclear aneutronic fusion reactors, like Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) with the Dense Plasma Focus, and Tri Alpha Energy, Inc. with the Colliding Beam Fusion Reactor (CBFR), plan to harness the photoelectric and Auger effects to recover energy carried by X-rays and other high-energy photons. Those photoelectric converters are composed of X-ray absorber and electron collector sheets nested concentrically in an onion-like array. Indeed, since X-rays can go through far greater thickness of material than electrons can, many layers are needed to absorb most of the X-rays. LPP announces an overall efficiency of 81% for the photoelectric conversion scheme.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_energy_conversion#X-ray_photoelectric_converter
Thanks - this makes a lot more sense now. More reading for tonight too :)
Thanks to both of you for help on the direct fusion-to-electricity concept.
They might wind up using both processes, since fusion would produce both x-rays and plasma. Plus have the hot residue generate steam after the MHD step.
Or you study up on Zero Point Energy, ARVs and so on.
Well that certainly was a more reasoned response than the ones before. The problem with overcoming the fifteen year barriers is that most of it is theoretical and sometimes difficult to put into practice. This stuff takes a long time and lots of money. If I see it in my lifetime I will be surprised but if I don’t I hope my kids do.
E=MC^2 was first proposed by Einstein in 1905.
The first Atomic sustained controlled chain reaction was in December 2, 1942.
SO, by that measure I’d put ‘fusion’ on a timeline of at least three times that...............
Powerful lasers required. How much power will be required to create how much power?
A Jiga-Watt at least!.................
Sounds like glorified solar panels to me. They are probably just going to dump the waste heat into the air.
Hmmm...Speaking of things I once thought impossible, wish I had known about this before I let the urologist insert a laser and burn a tunnel through my prostate. It definitely created a sustained confusion reaction.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.