Speaking of Holmlid, muons and/or muon substitute here is a new article from
Fusion,
Rather prestigious venue, one would think...
This is not all that far from commercial realization
Existing Source for Muon-Catalyzed Nuclear Fusion Can Give Megawatt Thermal
Fusion Generator
Article in Fusion Science and Technology · January 2019
-
Leif Holmlid
- University of Gothenburg
AbstractFusion power generators employing muon-catalyzed nuclear fusion can be
developed using a new type of laser-driven muon generator. Results using this
generator have been published, and those data are now used to derive the
possible fusion power using this generator. Muon-catalyzed fusion has been
studied for 60 years, and the results found in such studies are used here to
determine the possible power output. Since the muon source gives complex
mixtures of mesons and leptons, which have very different interactions with the
measuring equipment, the number of negative muons formed is not easily found
exactly, but reasonable values based on numerous published experiments with
different methods are used to predict the energy output. With deuterium-tritium
as fuel, a fusion power generator employing the novel muon generator could give
more than 1 MW thermal power. The thermal power using pure deuterium as fuel
may be up to 220 kW initially: It will increase with time up to over 1 MW due
to the production of tritium in one reaction branch. The power required for
running a modern laser and the muon generator is estimated to be of the order
of 100 W, thus giving a total energy gain of more than 10 000. The harmful
radiation from such fusion power generators is mainly in the form of neutrons
from the fusion reactions. Thus, thick radiation shields are necessary as for
almost all other fusion concepts. This means that medium-scale thermal fusion
power generators of the muon-catalyzed fusion type may become available within
a relatively short time.
