A 100 GW D-T Plant

[MSimon]

An optimum direct conversion plan should utilize any nuclear energy carrier including neutrons. Lithium deuteride makes such a plan possible.

Please describe your plan along with BOE calculations.

I see smoke here all the time. Show me some numbahs.

[Axil]

“I do accept that pigs fly.”

So sorry, but the alpha particles from p-B11 fusion will blast apart whatever solid material you employ for direct energy conversion medium in polywell and in just a few minutes. That is where I see the airborne pigs.

At 2 to 3 MeV sure. At 20 KeV waste energy direct conversion may be possible. Get it down to 2 or .2 KeV and the problems you allude to disappear.

The three alpha particles from p-B11 fusion will produce 27 MeV in heat to moderate to .2KeV. That is wasteful and a poor engineering solution. It is also a heat dissipation problem.

[DeltaV]

The alphas are subjected to an electric field which slows them down. Their kinetic energy is converted to electrical potential in the direct conversion grid circuit.

[Axil]

An optimum direct conversion plan should utilize any nuclear energy carrier including neutrons. Lithium deuteride makes such a plan possible.

Please describe your plan along with BOE calculations.

I see smoke here all the time. Show me some numbahs.

The Plan is a variant of Popa-Simil work.

For and overview see.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13545

For detail, see his patent as follows:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=ZqDNAA ... &q&f=false

His concept is flawed in part related to endurance.

Absorb this material and we will discuss how to mitigate these flaws.

[Axil]

The alphas are subjected to an electric field which slows them down. Their kinetic energy is converted to electrical potential in the direct conversion grid circuit.

What happens when the grid circuit does not demand power? No electric field? Then material damage; Heat?

[D Tibbets]

I'm not sure what Axil is trying to say. Any direct conversion scheme involves slowing fast moving charged particles with electric fields while avoiding impacts,until almost all of the kinetic energy has been converted into potential energy (transferred to the collection grid). The particle is then allowed to contact and ground on a surface. If the output is pulsed, a transformer type effect could also be used (magnetic hyterodyne?). Lithium can absorb a neutron and exothermically produce tritium and helium. The kinetic energy of these charged particles could then be converted into electricity. But, the lithium is a solid or liquid blanket so the charged particles would quickly ground in the bulk material and the energy generated would have to be extracted thermally, just like from the original neutron. There is a boost in the net energy (Boron 10 will also do this) but the final energy conversion would still be thermal (~ 25-30% conversion efficiency). The only exception would be if the lithium was in a rarefied gas or plasma, but this would require huge volumes to have a chance of intercepting some neutrons. The other exception would be lithium arranged in thin sheets with appropriate conversion layers - like beta voltaic cells. But, the survivability of such systems in a harsh high neutron environment is doubtful.

Dan Tibbets

[KitemanSA]

So sorry, but the alpha particles from p-B11 fusion will blast apart whatever solid material you employ for direct energy conversion medium in polywell and in just a few minutes. That is where I see the airborne pigs.

The alphas would be slowed against the direct conversion field to a point where they had little remaining kinetic energy. Very little damage potential remaining.

[KitemanSA]

The alphas are subjected to an electric field which slows them down. Their kinetic energy is converted to electrical potential in the direct conversion grid circuit.

What happens when the grid circuit does not demand power? No electric field? Then material damage; Heat?

Actually, when the circuit doesn't require power, the voltage in the field goes UP for a while. The electron flow reduces the voltage. A short circuit would zero it.

Of course, there would be all sorts of protective circuits so bad things would seldom happen.

[MSimon]

The alphas are subjected to an electric field which slows them down. Their kinetic energy is converted to electrical potential in the direct conversion grid circuit.

What happens when the grid circuit does not demand power? No electric field? Then material damage; Heat?

Well there are a number of possibilities. Turn off the reactor field first. Stop feeding the fuel.

I mean seriously. Are you an engineer? The problem is trivial. A small (2 to 10 KWh) flywheel can absorb plenty of energy until the reaction ceases. A capacitor bank is probably enough. Try running the numbahs.

[Axil]

The alphas are subjected to an electric field which slows them down. Their kinetic energy is converted to electrical potential in the direct conversion grid circuit.

What happens when the grid circuit does not demand power? No electric field? Then material damage; Heat?

Actually, when the circuit doesn't require power, the voltage in the field goes UP for a while. The electron flow reduces the voltage. A short circuit would zero it.

Of course, there would be all sorts of protective circuits so bad things would seldom happen.

Someone should build and test these high power electric circuits to see how much power they use. And I would be interested in their response times. Complex high power things take longer to respond. In the time it takes for them to respond, material is being damaged, and heat is being produced.

How many transitions can the equipment take? What is the expected lifetime of such an approach?

Numbers please?

[Axil]

I'm not sure what Axil is trying to say. Any direct conversion scheme involves slowing fast moving charged particles with electric fields while avoiding impacts,until almost all of the kinetic energy has been converted into potential energy (transferred to the collection grid). The particle is then allowed to contact and ground on a surface. If the output is pulsed, a transformer type effect could also be used (magnetic hyterodyne?). Lithium can absorb a neutron and exothermically produce tritium and helium. The kinetic energy of these charged particles could then be converted into electricity. But, the lithium is a solid or liquid blanket so the charged particles would quickly ground in the bulk material and the energy generated would have to be extracted thermally, just like from the original neutron. There is a boost in the net energy (Boron 10 will also do this) but the final energy conversion would still be thermal (~ 25-30% conversion efficiency). The only exception would be if the lithium was in a rarefied gas or plasma, but this would require huge volumes to have a chance of intercepting some neutrons. The other exception would be lithium arranged in thin sheets with appropriate conversion layers - like beta voltaic cells. But, the survivability of such systems in a harsh high neutron environment is doubtful.

Dan Tibbets

Lithium hydride is a semiconductor. It can absorb electric charge(cathode). To counteract neutron damage (or any other type damage), the robustness of the system is based on easily replacing the charge generators (anode) in a business as usual fashion. If enough charge is not extracted, heat is produced in the lithium hydride which can then be dumped by a fluid diode.

[MSimon]

What happens when the grid circuit does not demand power? No electric field? Then material damage; Heat?

Actually, when the circuit doesn't require power, the voltage in the field goes UP for a while. The electron flow reduces the voltage. A short circuit would zero it.

Of course, there would be all sorts of protective circuits so bad things would seldom happen.

Someone should build and test these high power electric circuits to see how much power they use. And I would be interested in their response times. Complex high power things take longer to respond. In the time it takes for them to respond, material is being damaged, and heat is being produced.

How many transitions can the equipment take? What is the expected lifetime of such an approach?

Numbers please?

It doesn't have to be fast. Just don't shut down the decelerator until the reaction turns off. BTW the speed will be no slower than 3 ms. (1/(60 Hz *2 * 3) - half cycle 60 hz 3 phase. And probably more on the order of 1/10KHz = 100 uS.

If you design for 1 second of operation you get 10,000 shutdowns.

[MSimon]

You don't have to build the circuits to get within 10% or better. Electrical engineering of high power converters has been going on for between 20 and 40 years.

I believe China is INSTALLING a 1 MV DC transmission line. Close enough until you have to get the details down.

Since you didn't answer my engineer question I will assume you are an interested amateur.

Read this:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-que ... disclaimer

[Axil]

“Electrical engineering of high power converters has been going on for between 20 and 40 years.”

Today, nuclear reactors of every type provide a failsafe design approach where the operation of the reactor gracefully shuts down dependent only on the laws of nature (Negative void coefficient) as a primary feature of their operation.

This Polywell electric circuit control approach as you describe it dose not feature such absolutely reliable fail safe control.

So being predisposed by current reactor technology, it is doubtful in my mind that the NRC will license such a reactor design subject to a even the slightest chance of a single point of failure in reactor control.

[GIThruster]

Axil, are you Vanilla? You're obviously very skilled. . .

But you're wrong. DOD has no reason to classify the Poly. It's too late for that. Instead, they'll protect the trade secrets but the tech is going to go global.

IMHO.