Ed Teller's pet was the Proton-Li7 ---> 2 He4 + 17.3 Mev reaction. But, according to his fusion article in my late 1940s Britannica he said it would never happen. :-)
Fred Edmund Storms wrote: > > I have to admire the people proposing to fuse H and B using Farnsworth > fuser. They will learn a lot and may actually make a useful contribution > in the future. Three problems exist. First, if they can actually > achieve a sufficient temperature to fuse H and B at a rate to make > useful energy, they should be able to fuse deuterium at a much higher > rate, hence produce even more useful energy. Second, the cross-section > for a two-element to one element fusion reaction is very small because a > gamma ray is required to carry some momentum away. For example, the > cross-section for the D+D to He reaction is trivial in a plasma. This > fusion reaction goes only because two other branches are possible that > produce two particles each. Third, the H and B need to be in gaseous > form. Boron forms a number of hydrides that are gas (B2H6 and B4H10 for > example). However, these compounds are fairly unstable and will > decompose in the plasma. As a result the boron will be quickly removed > from the plasma as fine powder. In addition, the compounds are very > toxic, not something a person without training and suitable equipment > wants to play with. In short, it is doubtful this method will produce > useful energy although it might generated a few fusion reactions. The > problem will be to know that such fusion has actually happened. B11 > would produce C12 and some gamma radiation. B10 would produce C11 which > is a weak positron emitter. Because this has a 20 min half-life, it may > be possible to detect its presence with suitable equipment. As far as I > know, other branches are not available for this reaction. > > In short, this is a nice training exercise, but has no hope of being useful. > > Regards, > Ed
