For a fusion reaction to take place, the nuclei, which are positively charged,must have enough kinetic energy to overcome their electrostatic force ofrepulsion. This can occur either when one nucleus is accelerated to highenergies by an accelerating device, or when the energies of both nuclei areraised by the application of very high temperature. The latter method, referredto the application of thermonuclear fusion, is the source of a lot of reallycool energy. Enough energy is produced in thermonuclear fusion to suck the paintof 1 city block of houses and give all of the residents permanent orange Afros. The sun is a example of thermonuclear fusion in nature.
If I was a atom, I couldonly wish to be in a thermonuclear reaction. Thermonuclear reactions occur whena proton is accelerated and collides with another proton and then the twoprotons fuse, forming a deuterium nucleus which has a proton, neutrino and lotsof energy. I have no idea what a deuterium nucleus is, but is must be 10 timescooler than just a regular nucleus. Such a reaction is not self sustainingbecause the released energy is not readily imparted to other nuclei.
thermonuclear fusion of deuterium and tritium will produce a helium nucleus andan energetic neutron that can help sustain further fusion. This is the basicprincipal of the hydrogen bomb which employs a brief, controlled thermonuclearfusion reaction. This was also how the car in the Back to the Future movieworked. It had a much more sophisticated system of producing a fusion reactionfrom things like, old coffee grounds, bananas, and old beer cans. Thermonuclearreactions depend on high energies, and the possibility of a low-temperaturenuclear fusion has generally been discounted.
Little does the scientificcommunity know about my experiments. I have produced cold fusion in my basementwith things like: stale bread, milk, peanut butter and flat Pepsi. I have beenable to produce a ten-megaton reaction which as little as a saltine cracker andsome grass clippings. But enough about my discoveries. Early in 1989 twoelectrochemists startled the scientific world by claiming to achieve a room-temperature fusion in a simple laboratory. They had little proof to back uptheir discovery, and were not credited with their so-called accomplishment.
Thetwo scientists were Stanley Pons of the university of Utah and MartinFleischmann of the University of Southampton in England. They described theirexperiment as involving platinum electrodes an electrochemical cell in whichpalladium and platinum were immersed in heavy water. These two losers said thatthe cell produced more heat than could be accounted for. Yeah right!! The weekbefore I was talking to both men on the phone and I told them about all of thecool things you could do with platinum. I said “Now Martin, what you need to dois get your hands on some platinum and some heavy Mexican drinking water. Theamount of chemicals in the Mexican drinking water is sure to cause a violentreaction with the platinum electrodes and produce lots of energy.
I have beendoing this sort of things in my basement for years. ” When I told him thatthough that NASA could power their shuttles with this sort of a reaction, henearly wet his pants. Now as usual, I received no credit for MY discovery, butthat is ok. . I have grown used to it. I taught Einstein, Newton, and Ron Popeel(inventor of things like the pasto-matic, hair-in-a-can, and the pocketfisherman) everything they know.
Besides, the two shmucks didnt even follow myinstructions for the experiment. However, until I reveal my secrets about coldfusion, it will remain only a proposed theory. nuclear fusion is also whatpowers the rest of the stars in the solar system. Stars carry out fusion in athermonuclear manner. Thermonuclear is a really cool word which I am going touse several more times just because it is so cool.
In a thermonuclear reactionmatter is forced to exist in only in a plasma state, consisting of electrons,positive ions and very few neutral atoms. Fusion reactions that occur within aplasma serve to heat it further, because the portion of the reaction product istransferred to the bulk of the plasma through collisions. In the deuterium-tritium reaction the positively charged helium nucleus carries 3. 5 MeV. Theneutron escaped the plasma with little interaction and , in a reaction, coulddeposit its 14. 1 MeV in a surrounding lithium blanket.
I have know idea whatthat last sentence meat, but I am going to memorize it, because I will soundsuper smart if I tell someone about the neutrons activity in a plasmathermonuclear reaction. The neutrons activity would breed tritium and also heatas a exchange medium which could be used to produce steam to turn generatorturbines. However, the plasma also loses thermal energy though a variety ofprocesses: conduction, convection, and bremsstrachlng which is electromagneticradiation about 1000 times stronger than the microwave in your kitchen. Bermsstrachlng is the electromagnetic energy which is produced by thedeceleration of a charged particle.
Energy also escapes in the reaction throughline radiation from electrons undergoing level transitions in heavier impurities,and through losses of hot nuclei that capture an election and escape andconfining field. Ignition occurs when the energy deposited within the plasma byfusion reactions equals or exceeds the energy being lost. In order to achieveignition, plasma must be combined and heated. Obviously, a plasma at millionsof degrees is not comparable with an ordinary confining wall, but the effect ofthis incompatibility is not the destruction of the wall as might be expected. I have found that if one uses Corning Ware in a microwave set on high, plasmacan take place quite safely.
It is important to note that tupperware is notsuited well for thermonuclear reactions, and is best left to use to storeweapons grade plutonium in. I find that the air tight lids work simplysplendidly in keeping all of that nasty glowing radioactive dust to a minimum inmy room. . Although the temperature of a thermonuclear plasma is very high andthe power flowing through it may be quite large the stored energy is relativelysmall and would quickly be radiated away by impurities if the plasma touched awall and began to vaporize it.
A thermonuclear plasma is thus self-limiting,because any significant contact with the vessel housing causes its extinctionwithin a few thousandths of a second. Therefore, plasma must be carefullyhoused and handled while it is occurring (For further information on plasmarefer to the 2 essay in my series entitled “Why Plasma Is So Cool”). Most of the research dealing with fusion since 1950 has used magnetic fields tocontain the charged particles that constitute a plasma. The density required inmagnetic-confinement fusion is much lower than atmospheric density, so theplasma vessel is evacuated and them filled with the hydrogen-isotope fuel at0.
0000000. What is the deal with all of those zeros? I mean it means the sameas 0. . It must be one of those wacky science thingys. Sort of like whyinflammable and flammable mean the same thing.
Who knows. Anyway, Magnetic-field configurations fall into two typed: open and closed. Wow, that was realobvious. In an open configuration, the charged particles, which are spiralingalong magnetic field lines maintained by a solenoid, are reflected at each endof a cell by stronger magnetic fields. I have found in my research that if oneused a 9-volt battery (preferably from a old smoke detector) the reaction takesplace much more efficiently.
In this simplest type of mirror machine, manyparticles that have most of their velocity parallel to the solenoidal magneticfield are not reflected and can escape. This is a real problem for me when everI try to perform a thermonuclear fission reaction. I have yet to find asolution to the problem, but for now stale Trident chewing gum works as aacceptable improvision for the problem. Present day mirror machines retard thisloss by using additional cells to set up electrostatic potentials that helpconfine the hot ions within the central solenoidal field.
In a Closed reaction,the magnetic-field lines along which charged particles move are continuouswithin the plasma. This closure has most commonly taken the form of a toros, ordoughnut shape, and the most common example is the tokamak. In a tokmak theprimary confining field is totoidal and is produced by coils of surrounding thevacuum vessel. Other coils cause current to flow through the plasma byinduction. This toroidally flowing current wraps itself around the plasma.
Isit just me, or are there a lot of really useless big words. I mean, totoidally,what is this? My only thought is that is one of those many wacky science termsthat people who you see on the Discovery Channel would use. The poloidalmagnetic field, at right angles, that stronger toroidal field, acting together,yield magnetic field lines that spiral around the torus. This spiring ensuresthat a particle spends equal amounts of time above and below the totoidalmidplane, thus canceling the effects of a vertical drift that occurs becausemagnetic field is stronger on the inside of the torus than on the outside. Another cool thing about thermonuclear plasma is that a certain type of plasmacalled Tokmak plasma can be heated to temperatures of 10-15 million k by thecurrent flowing in the plasma. Imagine how quick one could broil chicken.
Inless than seconds, you could have a perfectly golden brown and tender chickenready for dinner. At higher temperature the plasma resistance becomes too lowfor this method to be effective, and heating is accomplished by injecting beamsof very energetic neural particles into the plasma. These ionize, becometrapped, and transfer their energy to the build plasma through collisions. Alternatively, radio frequency waves are launched into the plasma at frequenciesthat resonate with various periodic particle motions. The waves give energy tothese resonant particles, which then transfer it to the rest of the plasmathrough collisions. In some of my most recent expirations I have been able touse radio frequency waves to push electrons around the tokmak to maintain theplasma current.
Such noninductive current drive allows the tokamak pulse tooutlast the time limitly imposed by the fact that , in a transformer-driventokmak reaction thingy, the plasma current lasts only as long as the current inthe secondary coils reach their current limits, confinement is lost, and theplasma terminates until the transformer can be reset. Although the plasma in asinductively driven tokamak is pulsed, the electricity produced would not ve,because the thermal inertia of the neutron-capturing blanket would sustainstream generation between pulses. By allowing longer pulse or steady-stateplasma operation, however, radio frequency current drive could lessen thethermal stresses in the fusion reaction. However, so far cooking with plasmahas not been to practical for me. Another approach to fusion pusued sinceabout 1974, is termed inertial confinement.
During my many patrols during theViet. . -NAM war, I further developed my theorys and opinions regarding inertialconfinement fusion. When I arrived home with a severely hyper-extended earlobe,I was in great pain and suffering, but I still managed to explain my findings tothe scientific community.
essentially, my theory of inertial confinement fusionworks similar to how the atomic bomb works. A small pellet of frozen deuteriumand tritium are compressed to a very high temperature and densities in a processanalogous to what is accomplished by bombarding the pellet from all sides,simultaneously with a really intense laser. I nearly put my eye out with thething. It is certainty not a toy. Anyway, back to fusion. After you have nukedthe pellet thing with the super laser thingy, the pellet vaporizes and, bymechanical reaction, imparts inwardly directed momentum to their remainingpellet core.
The inertia of the inwardly driven pellet material must besufficient to localize the power of -9 seconds required to get significantenergy release. In 1988, after my defeat in the presidential election, I helpedthe government preform underground tests in the Nevada desert. I had showed thegovernment how to do this type of experiment in 1986, but it took them two yearsbefore they could get it right. I think that their chief nuclear engineers namewas Forrest or something. .
Man what a idiot. He just could not get it right. Once again, people took credit for my discovery. The miniminum confinementcondition necessary to achieve energy gain in a deuterium-tritium plasma is thatof the product of the density in ions per cubic cm and energy containment timein seconds must exceed 6×10 -13th power.
This was attained for the first timein a hydrogen plasma at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. Thetemperature required to ignite a fusion reactor is in the range of 100-250million k, several times the temperature of the center of the sun. What? Howcan you have a reaction several times the suns central temperature in a enclosedplasma environment? Is this some kind of wacky scientist joke or something?Anyway, the science geeks at M. I. T supposedly did produce this kind of fusion.
The goal on fusion is in effect, to produce and hold a small star. It is adaunting and tedious research which is considered to be of the most advanced inthe world. Creating a small dwarf star in a man-made environment has thought tobe the highest scientific challenge. Even though last weekend my little brotherand I did create several dwarf stars, we were forced to put them out because theneighbors kept complaining about the light.
The cop was a real jerk. I triedexplaining to him what I was doing, but he kept asking me to do stupid thingslike: stand on 1 leg and recite the alphabet backwards, and touch my nose withmy finger. Apparently the cop though that I was getting smart with him when Istarted to explain to him about the beauty of fission energy. Oh well, at leasthe didnt arrest me..again…Category: Science
