Is this early April fools from NASA? One of many big problems is that although
lattice fusion reportedly can produce a small flux of neutrons, they are not
fast neutrons... far from it.
Fast fission requires very fast neutrons - typically about 1 MeV. Unless of
course there has been a breakthrough which I've missed.
There doesn't appear to be a direct reference online for "Lattice Confinement
Fusion - Fast Fission"
Does anyone have such a reference?
H L V <[email protected]> wrote:
Accessing Icy World Oceans Using Lattice Confinement Fusion Fast Fission
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2023/Accessing_Icy_World_Oceans/
quote
Icy World researchers have proposed using a nuclear powered, heated probe.
However, rather than require either the plutonium-238 radioisotope heat source
or an enriched uranium-235 fission reactor, with significant launch safety
costs, we propose making use of the recent Lattice Confinement Fusion source
used to efficiently fast-fission either depleted uranium or thorium in a molten
lithium matrix. The resulting hybrid fusion fast fission nuclear reactor will
be smaller than a traditional fission reactor where a lower mass power source
is needed and provide efficient operation with thermal waste heat from reactor
heats probe to melt through ice shelf to sub-ice oceans.
