By: qraal

qraal — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:03:00 +0000

Hi DarnellHelium-3 is currently pretty useless because we don't have fusion reactors that can burn it and we won't have for a few reactor generations if ITER is the best we can do. It will burn D+T and do that just barely. A D+He3 reactor requires… well currently it requires "magic" according to present thermonuclear fusion dogmas. No tokamak can burn the stuff and that's where all the ITER money is going – into a tokamak.Robert Bussard's fusor designs might be able to burn it for net power, but that's yet to be demonstrated even for D+T reactions. The hot fusion physicists think Bussard's approach is barking up the wrong tree, but the US Navy is funding the next two Polywell fusor experiments by Bussard's successors, now that he is no longer with us.I really hope his design works – firstly because it's the only design that can burn advanced fuels, like D+He3, Li6+Li6, He3+He3 and so on. Secondly because it will be safer and cheaper than tokamaks if it can burn such fuels. Even if it only burns D+T it will still be cheaper and safer because it doesn't require a huge magnetic field energy stored up in its coils.If it does work then selling people on the idea of energy from space will be a lot harder, I think, because we'll have lots of possible fusion fuels here on Earth. But it will also make getting into space a whole lot cheaper too. Check out the papers by Bussard at Askmar.com (look for the New Technology section, sub heading IEC fusion.)If Bussard fusors can be actualised then colonising the Solar System becames a feasible goal – and that's what we need to sell.

Comments on: Making Space Relevant: It's The Energy Stupid!

By: qraal