The Strange History of Fusion
and the Science of Wishful Thinking
by Charles Seife
Posted on 02/27/2021 11:40:42 PM PST by Kevmo
NASA Funds Study of Lattice Confinement Fusion
Posted on October 1, 2020
NASA returns to LENR as a fuel of the future or as they call it “lattice confinement” referring to the lattice structure formed by the atoms making up a piece of solid metal. The NASA group used samples of erbium and titanium for their experiments. Under high pressure, a sample was “loaded” with deuterium gas, an isotope of hydrogen with one proton and one neutron. The metal confines the deuterium nuclei, called deuterons, and excess energy is released via a fusion process.
More can be read here: https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/nuclear/nuclear-fusiontokamak-not-included
Below is an informative interview from Tech Talks Daily Podcast which interviews Laurence Forsley, senior experimental physicist with NASA, research fellow at the University of Texas, and CTO of Global Energy Corporation
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Spacecraft of the Future Could Be Powered By Lattice Confinement Fusion
By Michael Koziol
Posted 05 Aug 2020 | 21:00 GMT A row of orange tinted powdery samples sitting in the bottom halves of a row of transparent cylinders. Photo: NASA Deuterons have been forced into the atomic lattice structures of these samples of erbium used in NASA's fusion experiments. Nuclear fusion is hard to do. It requires extremely high densities and pressures to force the nuclei of elements like hydrogen and helium to overcome their natural inclination to repel each other. On Earth, fusion experiments typically require large, expensive equipment to pull off.
But researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have now demonstrated a method of inducing nuclear fusion without building a massive stellarator or tokamak. In fact, all they needed was a bit of metal, some hydrogen, and an electron accelerator.
The team believes that their method, called lattice confinement fusion, could be a potential new power source for deep space missions. They have published their results in two papers in Physical Review C.
“Lattice confinement” refers to the lattice structure formed by the atoms making up a piece of solid metal. The NASA group used samples of erbium and titanium for their experiments. Under high pressure, a sample was “loaded” with deuterium gas, an isotope of hydrogen with one proton and one neutron. The metal confines the deuterium nuclei, called deuterons, until it’s time for fusion.
“During the loading process, the metal lattice starts breaking apart in order to hold the deuterium gas,” says Theresa Benyo, an analytical physicist and nuclear diagnostics lead on the project. “The result is more like a powder.” At that point, the metal is ready for the next step: overcoming the mutual electrostatic repulsion between the positively-charged deuteron nuclei, the so-called Coulomb barrier.
Dr. Theresa Benyo documents the linear accelerator beam conditions during NASA’s lattice confinement fusion experiments while Jim Scheid and Larry Forsley discuss the beam stability data captured during the experiments. Photo: NASA Dr. Theresa Benyo documents beam conditions during NASA’s lattice confinement fusion experiments while Jim Scheid and Larry Forsley discuss the beam stability data. To overcome that barrier requires a sequence of particle collisions. First, an electron accelerator speeds up and slams electrons into a nearby target made of tungsten. The collision between beam and target creates high-energy photons, just like in a conventional X-ray machine. The photons are focused and directed into the deuteron-loaded erbium or titanium sample. When a photon hits a deuteron within the metal, it splits it apart into an energetic proton and neutron. Then the neutron collides with another deuteron, accelerating it.
At the end of this process of collisions and interactions, you’re left with a deuteron that’s moving with enough energy to overcome the Coulomb barrier and fuse with another deuteron in the lattice.
Key to this process is an effect called electron screening, or the shielding effect. Even with very energetic deuterons hurtling around, the Coulomb barrier can still be enough to prevent fusion. But the lattice helps again. “The electrons in the metal lattice form a screen around the stationary deuteron,” says Benyo. The electrons’ negative charge shields the energetic deuteron from the repulsive effects of the target deuteron’s positive charge until the nuclei are very close, maximizing the amount of energy that can be used to fuse.
Aside from deuteron-deuteron fusion, the NASA group found evidence of what are known as Oppenheimer-Phillips stripping reactions. Sometimes, rather than fusing with another deuteron, the energetic deuteron would collide with one of lattice’s metal atoms, either creating an isotope or converting the atom to a new element. The team found that both fusion and stripping reactions produced useable energy.
Larry Forsley examines a CR-39 particle detector used during NASA’s lattice confinement fusion experiments. Photo: NASA Bayarbadrakh Baramsai and Philip Ugorowski confer on the neutron spectroscopy system used to detect fusion neutrons. “What we did was not cold fusion,” says Lawrence Forsley, a senior lead experimental physicist for the project. Cold fusion, the idea that fusion can occur at relatively low energies in room-temperature materials, is viewed with skepticism by the vast majority of physicists. Forsley stresses this is hot fusion, but “We’ve come up with a new way of driving it.”
“Lattice confinement fusion initially has lower temperatures and pressures” than something like a tokamak, says Benyo. But “where the actual deuteron-deuteron fusion takes place is in these very hot, energetic locations.” Benyo says that when she would handle samples after an experiment, they were very warm. That warmth is partially from the fusion, but the energetic photons initiating the process also contribute heat.
There’s still plenty of research to be done by the NASA team. Now they’ve demonstrated nuclear fusion, the next step is to create reactions that are more efficient and more numerous. When two deuterons fuse, they create either a proton and tritium (a hydrogen atom with two neutrons), or helium-3 and a neutron. In the latter case, that extra neutron can start the process over again, allowing two more deuterons to fuse. The team plans to experiment with ways to coax more consistent and sustained reactions in the metal.
Benyo says that the ultimate goal is still to be able to power a deep-space mission with lattice confinement fusion. Power, space, and weight are all at a premium on a spacecraft, and this method of fusion offers a potentially reliable source for craft operating in places where solar panels may not be useable, for example. And of course, what works in space could be used on Earth.
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I have issues with Musk—but my number one issue:
—Takes lots of government money while claiming he is a capitalist
That’s why Pond/Fleishman used Palladium, it soaks up Hydrogen like a sponge.
I think there are multiple nuclear processes going on , wherein the one that generates neutrons is what triggers the secondary nuclear process, p-p fusion which is what occurs in our Sun and is the most common naturally occurring nuclear fusion process in Nature... by far.
I have issues with Musk—but my number one issue:
—Takes lots of government money while claiming he is a capitalist
—
Why not? Some one else would just soak up the money. Besides he’s doing more with the little he gets from the Feds then others who get far more.
He’s made rocketry look more like science fiction of decades ago, while NASA has spent billions and still has not been able to achieve what they did in 60 years ago.
NASA: waste of space. Musk: money well spent.
And BTW, Being a Capitalist does not preclude accepting money from a government source.
Here’s one definition of Capitalism:
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, a price system, private property and the recognition of property rights, voluntary exchange and wage labor.
Here’s one definition of a Capitalist:
1. A supporter of capitalism. 2. An investor of capital in business, especially one having a major financial interest in an important enterprise.
Notice there is no hedge against taking government money. So Musk is correct. And Property Rights are far more important in the definition of Capitalism than fiscal sources.
You’re relatively new here, so you might not be aware of how controversial this subject is here on FR.
Back in 2008 I started posting LENR articles, and in 2010 I wrote an article about how I made money on Cold Fusion.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2435697/posts
Then along came this guy Andrea Rossi. Promising results at irst, along with 3rd party testing. But the guy looked and acted like such a scam artist that it triggered the a$$#0/e brigade here on FR. I posted Rossi articles for 2&half months, but they hounded legitimate cold fusion threads for 2&half YEARS. We never had an experimentalist like you on those threads. It got pretty ugly.
I kept asking the mods for protection, a lot like how the qanonsense nutjobs have protection on their own q threads today. One of the mods even outed himself, having posted as a pure a$$#0/e on cold fusion threads but when he opused oout it turns out he wasn’t very conservative nor did he have any scientific training whatsoever. Bigfoot and chemtrails were okay with him but he joined the seagulls on the cold fusion threads.
I’ll probably be restarting the cold fusion ping list, but it is likely to be short lived if we don’t get legitimate moderator protection.
Right. Palladium. I misremembered it as platinum.
We discussed the idea that incorporating a secondary neutron source and suitable activation methodology to the overcome the barrier to either get the ball rolling or even to mediate the cold fusion reaction could overcome the barriers and result in in a workable hybrid type of device.
Unfortunately, at the time, the last thing the guys that controlled suitable neutron sources and related hardware wanted to do was encourage cold fusion heretics in their research and, more importantly, in their search for dwindling sources of research dollars.
I've had a soft spot in my heart for cold fusion since day one.
At the time my thinking mirrored rdcbn1's take.
I am sure that all the old skeptopaths will be out in force....
And then there is SAFIRE.
That’s counterintuitive that such a ping list would not draw out the FR Shiitebrigade m please add me to the list, I’ll take a look.
I will ping you to the next few, but to actually get added to the ping list, you have to threaten to report me to the Mods if I don’t!
It’s a right of passage...
Yeah. A bit.
If you don’t add me to that ping list, I will report you to the mods.
Welcome Aboard!
Thanks
“Unfortunately, at the time, the last thing the guys that controlled suitable neutron sources and related hardware wanted to do was encourage cold fusion heretics in their research and, more importantly, in their search for dwindling sources of research dollars.”
If one really wants to set their hair on fire, offer them a process for a laser triggered meson decay chain, which leads to muons on-the-cheap.
fyi, restarting the cold fusion ping list
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3938532/posts?page=20#20
Thanks.
These new developments sure do sound like cold fusion.
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