[extropy-chat] A ROOM-TEMPERATURE PALM-SIZED NUCLEAR FUSION DEVICE

[Dan Clemmensen]

Adrian Tymes wrote:

>One can get bursts of nuclear fusion from small devices.  That's been
>known for a while.  The problem is getting a net production of
>electricity - in this case, more joules out than are consumed by, for
>example, heating the crystal.  (Looking at energy creation without
>acknowledging energy consumption is like looking at income without
>acknowledging expenses.)
>
>Still, this might have use as a neutron source for MEMS devices.
>_______________________________________________
>  
>
What has happened to the list? Here we have the first simple, fully 
replicable,
fully understood benchtop fusion device, and the only two responses are 
dismissive.

Look: Its a first try. Yes, the result is not exothermic, but since the 
science is
well understood, scientists can use this as a basis for improvement. 
With just a bit
of cleverness, it may be possible to engineer a micro-scale chain 
reaction and
achieve a controllable break-even. This should scare you, since it would 
then be trivial
to use the result as a trigger for an arbitrarily large thermonuclear 
device. Oops.

I corresponded with Seth Putterman (the lead investigator) in 1996 when 
I was interested in
Sonoluminescence. He was probably the lead player in SBSL experiments, 
and we
on this list were speculating about inducing fusion via SBSL. Needless 
to say he
knows a whole lot about piezoelectric elements, which are the workhorse 
tools
for SBSL.