That would be a good plan to end up with helium 4. The binding energy released once you get to that element is enormous.
The proton-proton reaction does not leave me with too much concern since the strong nuclear force is far dominate over the coulomb force. The only reason that I see for a problem with the proton-proton reaction is that this combination might not be capable of holding together long enough for the weak force to have time to perform its conversion of one of the protons into a neutron by beta plus decay. Obviously it works within stellar domains. The 2 nucleon combination of hydrogen 2 is stable so the other 2 possible combinations must decay into it if they have time. The fact that deuterium is stable proves that it is the lowest energy combination of the three which is a good thing since it would decay otherwise. I agree we are stuck with those nasty 511 keV gammas if the beta plus decay occurs. I believe that Dr. Storms avoids that problem by allowing an electron to be captured by one of the protons just as the fusion event occurs but I do not understand how that would pan out. It certainly would be advantageous from a shielding point of view to have his electron very close by during the process as the coulomb barrier would vanish entirely if the electron becomes space coherent with one of the protons. Unfortunately, the proton capture by a nickel atom will generally result in the beta plus decay mechanism as the unstable copper atoms decay. If you pick the nickel isotopes carefully, that can be avoided. That is why Rossi talks of using Ni62 and Ni64 in his fuel mix. I was not aware that the sun did not give up gammas as it would seem that the enormous activity in its outer atmosphere would generate some of them by itself. I suspect that most of the fusion within the sun does occur near the center due to the extreme pressure and temperature expected there. We do receive a large number of neutrinos from the beta plus decays that are expected. Any 511 keV gammas would most likely be lost far inside the sun but they would have to exist I think. It is an excellent idea to review the one really good model that we have which is the sun in your search for the ideal reaction. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Eric Walker <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, Jul 18, 2012 10:52 pm Subject: Re: [Vo]:principles of DGTG 's technology On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 1:14 PM, David Roberson <[email protected]> wrote: Are you considering an additional fusion reaction to follow up on the initial one discussed to use the hydrogen fuel more efficiently? If there is anyway to end up with helium 4, that problem would vaporize. That's right -- I'm thinking the proton-proton chain would carry all the way to 4He. It would require passage through the mysterious diproton reaction, and we would have to suffer the 511 keV gammas somehow (perhaps they end up being useful or critical in some way). But the reaction would result in helium at the end of it, just like the sun, although I'm not thinking anywhere near full conversion of the hydrogen would occur. I assume there would also be some proton capture with the surrounding substrate and with impurities. Proton capture is generally pretty clean, I think. An interesting point is that no gammas are given off by the sun. The current explanation is that the fusion occurs in the core and that the gammas will have been dissipated by the time they reach the outer layers, where fusion is understood to not take place. But I wonder how many explanations of this sort go back to a hallway conversation somewhere in 1940, where the people talking decided to follow up with further research, but they never did, and no one came up with a better explanation, so the origins of the existing explanation were forgotten and the understanding took on an air of fact. Eric
