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...or, The tin man gets oiled in Oz, and the wizard gives-up the secret to
solving the wicked witch's (gasoline-warbucks) hegemony, in order to crack
the grip of the NeoCon petrocracy + OPEC collusion on Toto's moto...
Huh...?
The reaction p+11B --> 3 alphas has always seemed the ideal,
in-a-perfect-world kind of nuclear reaction for ecological energy production. It
is a fission reaction, not a fusion reaction, with a small fraction of the
ecological negatives of other kinds of nuclear energy. It is far cleaner
than fusion, but it cannot be pulled off in a plasma. It must start out as solid
state to be efficient. Thus the stalemate and the reason that few mention it
anymore.
The reason that the reaction p+11B --> 3 alphas is not feasible in
any kind of Tokomak, Fusor or other plasma ICF reactor is because boron when in
plasma form generates huge unrecoverable losses, due to the mass difference
with the protons, and the protons just cannot get hot-enough to do the job. But
as a solid "target" i.e. as when the external wall of the fusor is
designed as a target, or if a pellet of frozen borane is irradiated, things
start to get interesting. This does not necessarily require massive machines,
either.
You need protons in the borane molecules to get to the equivalent of about
750 keV of energy to make it statistically interesting. But is there any
efficient and alternative way to do this, besides acceleration them? IOW
can the protons which are already there in a borane molecule absorb that
kind of needed energy so as to get propelled into the very nucleus in which they
are chemically bound?
The answer is maybe, if one can use the "coulomb slingshot" effect of the
k-shell electrons. But to push a proton in that far requires several megabars of
equivalent pressure applied very rapidly. A chemical explosion has too little,
but perhaps not if "bootstrapped" such as by rapidly irradiating and imploding a
cryogenic "grey tin" sphere filled with frozen borane.
Dorothy:
But where does that kind of pressure come from?
Wizard of Oz:
A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved
by others.
Dot:
Get real, Wiz. We're back in Kansas now, trying to solve the world's energy
problem.
Wicked Witch of the West:
Gone so soon? I wouldn't hear of it. Why my little oil party's just
beginning.
Toto:
Grrr...Grrr...
Wiz:
Oh, I see. Perhaps the tin man has your answer.
Dot:
Yes! Yes! it is the tin man!!
Signed,
Harry Tuttle
ductwork engineer - aka - the "tin man"
All join-in:
Somewhere over the rainbow... way up high,
there's a land that I heard of...once in a lullaby. Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue,
and the dreams that you dare to dream...really do come true. Chorus: Just say adieu to CO2
Toto:
....arf. arf... [wags tail rapidly} |
