Free Republic

By reconstructing a nearly forgotten 1938 experiment, scientists have uncovered new significance in an early observation of deuterium-tritium fusion that still shapes nuclear science today. (Artist’s concept). Credit: SciTechDaily.com Physicists confirm DT fusion insights from a 1938 experiment. The findings connect past theory with current fusion efforts. A team at Los Alamos National Laboratory has successfully recreated a significant yet largely overlooked physics experiment: the first recorded observation of deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion. Their updated version of the 1938 experiment, recently detailed in Physical Review C, reaffirms the pivotal role of University of Michigan physicist Arthur Ruhlig. Ruhlig’s original work likely...

One of history’s greatest “what ifs” is the question of what would have happened had the Germans been able to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War. The Wehrmacht’s effort to do just that, called the Uranverein, or “Uranium Club,” began in 1939 when German Army physicist Kurt Diebner began to research the potential military applications of nuclear fission. By year’s end, the renowned German physicist Werner Heisenberg had expressed his belief that nuclear fission chain reactions, and thus, eventually, nuclear bombs, might be possible, but only if he had access to enough of a singular substance known as...

Vienna (AFP) - The UN's nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran's stock of heavy water for reactors has surpassed the limit set under its agreement with world powers. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that Iran's heavy water production plant was in operation and that its stock of heavy water reserves was 131.5 tonnes, above the 130-tonne limit. In Vienna, an IAEA spokesperson said: "On 17 November, the Agency verified that the Heavy Water Production Plant (HWPP) was in operation and that Iran’s stock of heavy water was 131.5 metric tonnes." Heavy water is not itself radioactive...

Israel’s military warned people Thursday to evacuate the area around Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor. The warning came in a social media post on X. It included a satellite image of the plant in a red circle like other warnings that proceeded strikes.

Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed on Wednesday that Iran has removed the calandria, or central vessel, of its nuclear reactor at Arak, and it will be filled with concrete within hours. Iranian media reported earlier this week that the Islamic Republic had removed the core of the Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor, the fate of which was one of the sticking points in nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six world powers. "Just yesterday, the foreign minister (of Iran) reported to me that the calandria of the plutonium nuclear reactor is now out and in the next hours it will...

Helion Energy, a startup developing engines powered by nuclear fusion, is certain to pique the interest of sci-fi fans. But the more important question for Helion President Philip Wallace is whether the same can be said of venture capitalists. That’s because the Seattle-based company is on the hunt for $20 million in financing to build a full-scale model of its fusion engine. That engine, which the company currently has a prototype of at one-third scale, works by forming hot, ionized hydrogen gas. The gas is then electromagnetically accelerated to greater than 1 million mph and collided in a burn chamber...

NASA’S NEW SHORTCUT TO FUSION POWER Lattice confinement fusion eliminates massive magnets and powerful lasers PHYSICISTS FIRST SUSPECTED more than a century ago that the fusing of hydrogen into helium powers the sun. It took researchers many years to unravel the secrets by which lighter elements are smashed together into heavier ones inside stars, releasing energy in the process. And scientists and engineers have continued to study the sun’s fusion process in hopes of one day using nuclear fusion to generate heat or electricity. But the prospect of meeting our energy needs this way remains elusive. The extraction of energy...

Inside JET's torus, with superimposed plasma. (UKAEA) Late last century, the Joint European Torus (JET) near Oxford, UK, churned out 22 megajoules of energy in what was, at the time, a record in fusion power. Now, experimental upgrades have brought the facility into line with the technology anticipated for a major international project, resulting in the production of nearly three times that amount of power. The advances are a major step forward for tokamak-based fusion, bringing us ever closer to a balance point where we can harvest a near endless stream of energy without the cost of polluting emissions or...

Five billion years ago, the universe was Earth-less. It remained that way till a vast number of asteroids smashed together and compacted into a giant rocky orb. But that raises a question: The Earth's surface is 70% water, so where'd the liquid come from? A long-standing theory is that a water-rich class of asteroids, called carbonaceous or C-type asteroids, could've pelted the Earth during its creation and brought along water. There's a caveat though, and the C-type asteroids may be only half the story....

Explanation: This high cliff occurs not on a planet, not on a moon, but on a comet. It was discovered to be part of the dark nucleus of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (CG) by Rosetta, a robotic spacecraft launched by ESA that rendezvoused with the Sun-orbiting comet in 2014. The ragged cliff, as featured here, was imaged by Rosetta in 2014. Although towering about one kilometer high, the low surface gravity of Comet CG would likely make it an accessible climb -- and even a jump from the cliff survivable. At the foot of the cliff is relatively smooth terrain dotted with...

Narita: Investigating Thermal Behavior of Pd Foil Coated with Metal Membrane in Deuterium Diffusion Poster # S. Narita, M. Endo, S. Kikuchi, K. Negishi, K. Ota Iwate University, Morioka, Japan E-mail: narita@iwate-u.ac.jp It has been reported that anomalous excess heat generation have been observed when charging deuterium into nano-composite Pd-Ni supported by ZrO2 [1,2]. It is supposed to be difficult to explain the phenomena by known chemical processes, which could potentially be attributed to specific characteristics of deuterium diffusion in the metal complex, as well as the nano-sized fine structure of the sample. Yamaguchi et al. observed excess heat and...

Elsevier Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry Volume 882, 1 February 2021, 115024 Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry Electrolytic co-deposition neutron production measured by bubble detectors Author Phillip J.Smith , Bruce M.Steinetz https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelechem.2021.115024 Highlights • Bubble detector neutron dosimeters measured electrochemical cell neutron activity • Case control: PdCl2/LiCl/D20 cells were compared with CuCl2/LiCl/D20 control cells • Experimental cells exhibited neutron activity greater than controls: 99% confidence • Highest neutron-generating experimental cells produced dendritic cathode deposits • Neutron activity cannot be explained by chemical reactions, only nuclear processes Abstract Co-deposition electrochemical cells are a simple means to examine novel nuclear reactions. In this study,...

This boy fused two deuterium atoms together in a reactor he built in his family home! This is what happens when kids are given the means and opportunities to follow their dreams: 12-year-old Jackson Oswalt achieved nuclear fusion using the reactor he had built in his house in Memphis, Tennessee, officially making him the world's youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion, per Guinness World Records! Now, at 15 years old, he has become one of this year's Guinness World Records 2021 edition stars.

Fusion power is the technology that is 30 years away, and always will be, according to skeptics, at least. Despite its difficult transition into a reliable power source, the nuclear reactions that power the sun have a wide variety of uses in other fields. The concept fusion drive, called a direct fusion drive (or DFD), is in development at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). Though still under development, the engine itself exploits many of the advantages of aneutronic fusion, most notably an extremely high power-to-weight ratio. The fuel for a DFD drive can vary slightly in mass and contains...

Research reveals that plate tectonics started on Earth 600 million years before what was believed earlier... Where it was previously thought that plate tectonics started about 2.7 billion years ago, a team of international scientists used the microscopic leftovers of a drop of water that was transported into the Earth's deep mantle - through plate tectonics - to show that this process started 600 million years before that. An article on their research that proves plate tectonics started on Earth 3.3 billion years ago was published in the high impact academic journal, Nature, on 16 July... For their research, the...

Breaking the Light Speed Barrier with David Sereda by Diane M. Cooper How do alien spacecraft get into our Solar System from those galaxies far, far away? David Sereda thinks he has found the answer to this question. In this technically satisfying but extremely readable interview, Sereda describes some of the experiences with alternative energy that eventually led to his "revelation" about the way alien spacecraft maneuver. And he explains to us just exactly how they may be able to move at the speed of light. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The spacecraft painting is © Douglas Taylor and used with permission. Along with...

Posted on November 9, 2018November 9, 2018 by Evan Gough Not all the Earth’s Water Came From Comets We have comets and asteroids to thank for Earth’s water, according to the most widely-held theory among scientists. But it’s not that cut-and-dried. It’s still a bit of a mystery, and a new study suggests that not all of Earth’s water was delivered to our planet that way.Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and it’s at the center of the question surrounding Earth’s water. This new study was co-led by Peter Buseck, Regents’ Professor in the School of...

Near term Commercial Fusion Power Possible - Laser induced fusion of ultra-dense deuterium with double net energy gain has been produced and gain of 20 times is within reach energy, fusion, laser, materials, nuclear, physics, science Facebook Twitter linkedin google Reddit Researchers at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Iceland are researching a new type of nuclear fusion process. This produces almost no neutrons but instead fast, heavy electrons (muons), since it is based on nuclear reactions in ultra-dense heavy hydrogen (deuterium). The new fusion process can take place in relatively small laser-fired fusion reactors fuelled by heavy...

Future aircraft could be powered by lasers and nuclear explosions if Boeing has its way. The aerospace firm claims a new-type of engine could produce energy-efficient thrust by firing lasers at radioactive material, such as deuterium and tritium. The technology could mean that planes and spaceships will require only a fraction of the power to operate, according to a recent patent filed by the company.

The question about the origin of oceans on Earth is one of the most important questions with respect to the formation of our planet and the origin of life. The most popular theory is that water was brought by impacts of comets and asteroids. Data from the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument aboard the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft indicate that terrestrial water did not come from comets like 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The findings were published today in the journal Science. Researchers agree that water must have been delivered to Earth by small bodies at a later...