Nuclear Fusion Discovered

prostoalex writes "Both USA Today and The New York Times are reporting on research group from UCLA led by Seth J. Putterman which has discovered a form of nuclear fusion. The impact of the discovery? 'While the device is probably too inefficient to produce electricity or other forms of energy, the scientists say, egg-size fusion generators could someday find uses in spacecraft thrusters, medical treatments and scanners that search for bombs.' The findings are published in Nature magazine."

Comments

homeland security applicatins

[khrtt]

It took me a while to realize what the heck neutron sources might have to do with homeland security. I think what they have in mind is detection of fissile material (i.e. uranium and plutonium, as in nukes).

You irradiate the baggage/cargo (or whatever) with neutrons, and check the outgoing neutron flux with a geigerzahler or some other neutron detector. If there is fissile material in the baggage, some of it would split, generating detectably more neutrons.

If you want to get cute about it, note that fission neutrons have lower energy than fusion neutrons. Then use a neutron detector that can differentiate neutrons by energy.

Now, you can probably detect neutron flux from spontaneous fission without any irradiation, but depending on type of fissile material and amount of shielding that flux might be too low to detect reliably. And you wouldn't be able to tell an isotopic neutron source from fissile materials. Not that isotopic neutron sources shouldn't raise suspicion if found in cargo/baggage.

The only real problem with a detector based on neutron irradiation is that you have to keep people the hell away from it:-).