On Thursday, December 15, 2022 at 9:41:50 AM UTC-6 johnk...@gmail.com wrote:
> > > On Thu, Dec 15, 2022 at 5:17 AM Lawrence Crowell <goldenfield...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > On Thu, Dec 15, 2022 at 5:16 AM Lawrence Crowell <goldenfield...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > *> This result means the energy delivered from the laser shock wave on a >> deuterium pellet was .67 the fusion energy released. It does not take into >> account the much larger amounts of energy needed to run the laser system, >> energy that does not make it to the pellet. This is a breakthrough of >> sorts, but still quite a ways from a practical operating fusion power >> station.* >> > > I agree with all that except that most of the Laser's energy that hits > the Fusion target does not heat the core deuterium and tritium pellet > directly, instead it heats an outer layer of a heavy metal like gold or > lead and that produces X-rays that heats the deuterium and tritium. With > this indirect method you lose a lot of efficiency but it's necessary > because the lasers are in the ultraviolet range and when UV light hits a > plasma most of the energy accelerates the electrons not the nuclei which is > what you want to fuse. Of course it doesn't take long for the energy in the > nuclei and the electrons to equalize but it takes longer than the time > window you have for fusion to occur which is only about as long as it takes > light to move 1 inch. If they could make a laser that worked with a shorter > wavelength than ultraviolet it would improve efficiency enormously and you > could get by with a much less powerful laser. > > John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis > <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis> > Before I continue, I think fusion can be arrived at with very modest powered lasers that do not induce a shock wave on a pellet. In fact I think for a few thousand watts you could get the same energy output. The lasers induce shock heating of the gold pellet, which in turn compresses the pellet into a much smaller volume. In fact, this is similar to how a hydrogen bomb works, but does not involve X-rays from fission in a plutonium pit. I think with your discussion on X-rays that you are thinking of the gamma and X-rays channeled by incident by a holraum onto a DT lithium-hydride target. LC -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/70de7bcd-bd21-41ee-bd7b-b54ac8bcefdbn%40googlegroups.com.
