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Desktop Cold Fusion Reconsidered
Armchair Anarchist writes "Nature.com reports on Rusi Taleyarkhan of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, who is once again claiming to have achieved ultrasound-induced fusion in deuterium-enriched acetone. Other experts are sceptical, but Taleyarkhan is keen to have other scientists check his results."
"Although the neutron count doubles at some points in the experiments, Putterman says that neutrons produced in random showers of cosmic rays, rather than fusion events, could be responsible. But Taleyarkhan points out that the neutron count was smaller in detectors further from the reaction chamber.
To prove that the neutrons are coming from fusion as bubbles burst, Putterman and Suslick suggest that the team closely monitor exactly when the neutrons appear. The current experiment simply counts up the number of neutrons detected over minutes, so correlations with bubble bursts cannot be seen."
They are NOT yet sure whether the neutrons come from bubbles or from cosmic rays.
So let's not start the usual jokes about using car stereos to power cars, sound waves harming swan ears, etc.
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
Unjustly dismissive. First off, even initially, Taleyarkhan rallied about as much support as he did opposition. Now, even much of his initial opposition considers his work valid. Sonofusion seems to be quite a real phenominon (albeit, currently six orders of magnitude from breakeven).
Here's a very interesting paper by him in Oct. 2005, in which they discuss many of the recent developments, including the potential for nonlinear scaling of efficiency and even the possibility of criticality. It's a very interesting read.
The *special* hell.
http://www.foresight.org/Conferences/MNT05/Abstrac ts/Donoabst.html
Even the lower temperature of only77 million degrees makes 15,000 degrees look positively arctic. Being able to do it in a container without magnetic containment in a vacuumUndue harshness given the state of the literature. It *has* been reproduced extensively, so those comments are completely incorrect; the main controversy is about the level of radiation emitted. Subsequent experiments in better conditions have reduced much of the criticism.
However, good comments on fusion's radiation. Even prized "pure" fusion reactions, such as B11+p, produce nasty radiation because you get some p-p fusion, you get some of the alpha particles (He4) as fusion reactants, even a tiny B12 or Dt impurity will dramatically increase the radiation levels, and all sorts of other problems.
The good thing about radiation from fusion reactors is that the fusing materials generally aren't "hot". The only problem is that irradiation of the reactor chamber itself can leave it radioactive; however, proper selection of construction materials can ensure that it has a short halflife, making reactor part disposal much less controversial.
The *special* hell.
Perhaps if the energy released was in the form of heat instead of "light" then a chain reaction could occur.
Incorrect. First off, you get light even when there is no fusion; the light is simply blackbody radiation of very hot material that was heated by the coalescing of shocks from bubble collapse in a very small region. The *fusion* gives off most of its energy as high-energy neutrons.
It's six orders of magnitude from breakeven currently, but has a lot of potential to scale up, including potential for criticality. Will it actually pan out as a valid energy source? Who knows; it's still in its infancy.
The *special* hell.
I hope it was the exploding grapes in a microwave that got modded "Informative" and not the South Park reference. :D
The Chewbacca Defense
(That link is pretty damned cool, by the way.)
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