[ExI] lockheed's fusion video

[spike]

Check this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlYClniDFkM

 

>From this site:

 

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2014/october/141015ae_l
ockheed-martin-pursuing-compact-nuclear-fusion.html

 

OK so this is a high-beta concept.  Fusion products are contained by
magnetic fields.  OK then, the reason I am not rushing out to buy LMCO stock
is that this said nothing about one of the major show-stoppers in the
tokamak:  neutron containment.  The fusion process creates high energy
neutrons (a tritium-deuterium fusion event yields an alpha particle and a
neutron, plus a lot of energy.)  

 

We can have all the magnetic fields we want, but neutrons will not even know
they are there, and will not care: they are neutral.  Magnetic fields can
contain the positive alphas, but no magnetic field can contain those
neutrons.  

 

High energy neutrons cause the materials surrounding the fusion reaction to
break down.  The neutrons are absorbed by the nuclei.  Eventually the
materials get so neutron-rich, they undergo spontaneous fission.

 

Note I am not claiming to know more about nuclear physics than Tom McGuire.
But I haven't heard a single word about how this scheme can solve what
appears to be the show-stopper with compact fusion: the hot neutron
containment problem.  Until I hear what they have in mind, I am not buying
any additional LMCO stock.

 

spike

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