Horace Heffner wrote: > > Yep, using your 0.1 amps instead of your 3.10e18 electrons per second I get > 6.24x10^17 electrons/sec. So: (6.24x10^17 electrons/sec)/(Pi*(0.02cm)^2) = > 4.97x10^20 electrons/(cm^2*s), which is indeed about 50 times the minimum. > > If your continuous operation approach does not work, and confinement time and/or pressure are important > variables to net yield, then breaching at least an outermost confinement > barrier with x-rays still seems to be an approach worth developing. > Take a look at the Sandia "Z Machine" experiment
http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/news-releases/2003/nuclear-power/Zneutrons .html "The action takes place within a container the size of a pencil eraser, called a hohlraum, at the center of the Z machine, itself a circular device about 120 feet in diameter." Other: "IN SANDIA'S "Z" MACHINE millions of amps of current are passed through a tiny spool of tungsten wires, producing a flood of x rays. Essentially the most powerful terrestrial producer of x rays, the Z device recently achieved the following milestones during a test shot: temperatures of 1.8 million K, a power output of 290 terawatts, and an energy release of 2.0 megajoules. The researchers believe nuclear fusion could be attained inside the device (by bombarding a fuel pellet with x rays) if the conditions were pushed further, to temperatures of 3.5 million K and power levels of 1000 terawatts." > > The main problem with the pulsed x-ray confinement approach I think is that the > remnants of the confinement structure become neutron radiated ejecta. > I think the main problem is that it doesn't work. :-) The ~1/2 liter capsule of LiH-LiD (with dispersed, or a wall of Boron-10 for neutron burning) can sit below the E-Beam gun in a pool of Mercury in a vessel that has a gravity-return heat pipe "chimney" (water boiler heat load to 360 C), Or a pool of Potassium or Lithium heat pipe fluids that are good for a closed cycle Stirling Engines or Gas Turbines. Frederick > > Regards, > > Horace Heffner >
