Jones— That INEA report from 1980 is a gold mine of data and many interesting ideas about the mechanics of various nuclear reactions. It does NOT say a word about quarks even though the idea of quarks was popularized in the early 1970’s.
Good work. Bob Cook From: Jones Beene Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2017 8:16 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Vo]:Could the future that started out as cold fusion be ... tada... thorium fission ? Robin wrote You would get a far greater yield from your muons, if you use muon catalyzed T-D fusion to create 14 MeV neutrons that directly fission a Thorium blanket. Hi, Well, there is no evidence for this conclusion insofar as "greater yield" is concerned. This is because we do not know the details of the energy release from muon induced fission in thorium. It could be more or less than a two stage process involving fast neutrons and it would not be a surprise if it was actually more. At any rate, the energy release is so massive in either case that the output difference is irrelevant considering the extra risk and cost of tritium. What we do know is that tritium is a serious proliferation risk and costs $30,000/gram. The aim of any alternative energy effort is generally this - go small, go simple and go cheap - forget the large expensive grid plant and find solutions for small scale implementation. One more detail: since muon induced fission is not a neutron mediated process, it is possible that minimally refined monazite ore can be used in place of refined thorium metal. This would make it attractive for countries like India, with massive deposits of ore and massive need of energy at the lowest possible cost.
