Big Bang

People are now getting quite enthusiastic about the proposal, but they seem to be thinking in terms of Tockamac size experiments. Whilest that would provide a lot of employment to physicists, it could be very dangerous. Remember if you convert several grams of hydrogen to helium immediately you will end up with a crater ten miles across! If this was done at the Livermore laboratories for instance this will take out the town of Livermore and a chunk of the surrounding area!

What I suggest is to start small. I have previously suggested that all that is necessary are two tubes the size of shotgun barrels facing each other. That should be more than sufficient. Also conduct the experiments way out in the desert. Then all you will lose if anything goes wrong are a few expendable physicists and techos!

Mathematical Disprooofs

Over the past few hundred years irrefutable mathematical proofs that something will not work have been ten a penny. For instance it was proven that since the contact between a circle and a tangent was infinitely small there could be no friction and so locomotives could not work. Steam driven ships could not cr0ss the Atlantic. Lord Kelvin mathematically proved that mechanical flight was impossible and that the sun would burn out in a million years. It was proved that the bumblebee could not fly. Descartes proved mathematically to Empress Catherine that there was no God.

I suggest that an experiment be conducted, and then it can be shown mathematically that this method does work.

The Squeeze

In my patent (location below) I said that the "magnetic pocket" would be kept the same size as it moved along the tube as it travels from one end of the tube to the other.

In fact, if hydrogen plasma is being used, it would be more useful if the magnetic pocket was made smaller as the plasma was accelerated along the tube. The reason for this is that if the magnetic pocket was made increasingly smaller the magnetic field would squeeze the plasma and increase the pressure and density of the plasma. This would assist the effect of the acceleration so as to increase the pressure and density of the plasma, and thus making it easier for the required pressure and density for fusion to be achieved; so that hydrogen fusion would occur when one jet of hydrogen plasma strikes the other on-setting jet of hydrogen plasma.

Halve That

There may be a misunderstanding derived from the piece below that the density of the centre of the sun must be achieved by the acclerated plasma for the fusion to work.

In fact the final density recquired to be achieved for each plasma jet is half the density of the centre of the sun. When the plasma jets hit each other and combine, after the plasma jets hit each other head on, the density achieved is double the density of the individual plasma jets. Thus the final density achieved will be the density at the centre of the sun if the final density achieved for each plasma jet is only half the density of the centre of the sun.

Achieving a density of half the density of the centre of the sun by acceleration is far more easy to achieve. Only half the acceleration is required.

Similarly the relative velocity calculated to penetrate the coulomb barrier is double the velocity which is required the be achieved for each plasma jet. The velocity required for each plasma jet is half the relative velocity required to penetrate the coulomb barrier.

Why Hydrogen Needs to be Compressed for Fusion - the Proton-Proton Reaction

Previously I said that two head-on deuterium plasma jets could be used to create fusion energy by directly fusing deuterium into helium. I have found that the process/device I have patented (http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/search_index.shtml Invention no. 2009100970) also can be used to create energy by fusing hydrogen at an even lower velocity. However a much higher plasma density is required (the same plasma density as at the core of the sun - but using this device easy to achieve).

Deuterium fusion, as in Tokamacs, has a coulomb barrier of 4 x 10^8 Kelvin. This is a measure of the repulsive force of two deuterons before they penetrate the electrostatic repulsive force, the coulomb barrier, and fuse into helium.

However the coulomb barrier between two protons (hydrogen nuclei) is far less. It is 1.5 x 10^7 Kelvin. 30 x less.

As is generally known the steps towards hydrogen fusing into helium are as follows:

1. A pair of protons fuse, forming a deuterium nucleus, a deuteron.
2. The deuteron fuses with an additional proton to form Helium 3.
3. Two Helium 3 nuclei fuse to create Beryllium 6, but this is unstable and disintigrates into two protons amd Helium 4.
4. The reaction also releases two neutrons, two positrons, gamma rays and a great deal of heat energy.

Thus it takes 30 x less energy (relative velocity) to initiate fusion of two hydrogen nuclei (protons) than it does for deuterium. This releases sufficient energy for the fusion process to continue until Helium is created, if the density conditions are right.

What conditions are necessary? A very high density of the plasma. The various different nuclei need to be numerous enough and close enough together to raise the probability that sufficient numbers of the correct nuclei collide so that a sustainable reaction is created. In effect there is a critical or minium density of the hydrogen plasma required. This is the same density as in the core of the sun, where this fusion reaction creates the neccessary heat and light which reaches Earth.

At this point most scientists turn off and say that this density is impossible to achieve on Earth. However this density is exactly what the plasma accelerator I have invented is designed to achieve.

Very high acceleration causes very high pressure and density in the plasma. The higher the acceleration the higher the plasma density which is produced. There comes a point where the critical plasma density necessary for hydrogen fusion is created.

If two hydrogen plasmas with the necessary high density and necessary high velocities collide, hydrogen fusion would be initiated. Conceptually very simple.

A further benefit is that, while this device could also create deuterium fusion, a much lower relative veolcity is required for hydrogen fusion. There is a trade-off between the higher velocity required for deuterium fusion against the higher acceleration and lower velocity required for hydrogen fusion.

As hydrogen is a lot more common than deuterium, the easy achievement of hydrogen fusion is a major benefit. As described below electricity generation using this device is technically and conceptually feasible. Cheap unexhaustible energy is now achievable!

The race is on for the Nobel Prize!

Easy hydrogen fusion

Further to the possibility of hydrogen fusion. I have done further calculations. Since the energy requirement for hydrogen fusion is 30 x less than for deuterium, a plasma velocity of only about 200 kms/sec would be required. To put this into context, a shotgun discharge is 50 kms/sec. So it is not a very high velocity.

In fact the shotgun analogy is very apt. In order to accelerate the hydrogen plasma so that the intense pressure requirement is achieved, (equalling the pressure at the core of the sun), the acceleration distance would be about the length of a shotgun barrel.

So two head to head shotgun tubes are all you need for hydrogen fusion. Maybe lasers can be used to accelerate the hydrogen plasma. But you will still need a magnetic pinch to keep the hot plasma away from the sides of the tube.

Fusion of hydrogen and deuterium plasma jets head-on into each other

Workable plasma fusion is desperately needed in this world. The major source of carbon dioxide, the cause of global warming, is electrical energy generation. The major alternative, nuclear power, is not much more attractive.

What is needed is something which will produce plentiful cheap electrical energy without producing carbon dioxide or harmful long-lasting nuclear radiation.

If nuclear fusion is possible, this will fill the bill. Nuclear fusion is the fusion of light nuclei into heavier nuclei, with the release of massive amounts of heat as a tiny amount of the mass is converted into energy. E+mc^2. It produces little long-lasting radiation.

The heat given out by the sun is produced by nuclear fusion. In the sun's case the conversion of hydrogen into helium. Nuclear fusion has been created briefly in laboratories, usually by so-called Tokamacs - torus shaped magmetic compressors of deuterium plasmas.

A plasma is an intensely heated gas (until it glows and has lost electrons) which can be controlled by a magnetic field. A plasma exhibits a magnetic field because its particles are moving.

I have invented a device which will fuse plasma of either hydrogen or deuterium into helium, releasing large quantities of heat.

I have called it a 'Plasma Accellerator' (excuse the spelling). A description of the device can be found on the IP Australia web site http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/search-index.shtml

The plasma accelerator can accelerate plasma to a very high velocity. It is a tube surrounded by individual electric coils. The coils are used to create a strong variable magnetic field inside the tube. The fields are varied so that a magnetic 'pocket' can be produced, which creates a magnetic 'pinch' effect. Into this pocket is inserted the plasma, and the pinch effect of the magnetic pocket holds the plasma.

A 'stripped' moving plasma contains a magnetic field which can be acted upon by the coils' magnetic fields.

The pocket can then be moved, even accelerated, by varying the the current in the electric coils in tandem. The plasma moves with the magnetic pocket, and can thus be accelerated to very high velocities.

If two of these tubes set end-on-end to direct the high velocity plasma head-on into each other; if a high enough velocity is achieved for deuterium or hydrogen plasma, the plasma will fuse into helium releasing a large quantityof heat.

A gas, or water vapour, can be directed at the point of impactof the two plasmas to carry the heat energy away to power electricity generation.

Will this sideways stream interfere with the reaction? Yes, to a certain extent it will. but all that is needed is to increase the velocity of the plasma streams to overcome this.

A continuous stream of plasma can be directed at each other to generate continuous energy through fusion. If the magnetic pockets follow each other fast enough it will look like and behave like a continuous stream.

It can be argued that the particles will pass each other without collision. If the plasma is dense enough, this is improbable. You only have to turn bunsen burners or welding jets on each other (admittedly they are at low velocity) to watch the flames 'splash'. The setting of the length of the distance apart of the ends of the acceleration tubes to obtain complete fusion is an engineering or technical problem.

Thus it is possible that the earth's 'clean' energy problems are solved. But is this solution possible or feasible?

Yes it is. I have calculated the minimum velocity required for two deuterium plasma jets to fuse is about 135,000 kms per hour. (See my post on Physics Forum - plasma jet fusion). If this cannot be achieved, the experimenters are not trying. (These are my own calculations. Others more expert can argue about this figure).

But what about hydrogen? Suprise, suprise. It is even easier to achieve fusion. While this is a really amazing (and welcome) result it will take a little bit of understanding.

At the moment, hydrogen to helium fusion has only been achieved in the core of the sun. Why? Because of the very high density required. High temperatures can be achieved relatively easily. But don't turn off, as all the scientists have. It requires a bit more explanation.

Deuterium fusion has a coulomb barrier of 4 x 10^8 K. (Temperature and energy measures are interchangeable). This is a measure of the repulsive force of two deuterons (deuterium nuclei) before they penetrate the coulomb barrier and fuse into helium. A coulomb barrier is the electrostic repulsion barrier around the atom. (Remember, at least theoretically, this can already be achieved by my plasma accelerator).

However inside the sun, the coulomb barrier of a proton (a hydrogen nucleus) is far less. It is 1.5 x 10^7 K. The reaction in the sun is called the proton-proton reaction.

However there are three steps in the proton-proton reaction. As is generally known the steps towards hydrogen fusing into helium inside the sun is as follows;

1. A pair of protons fuse, forming a deuteron.
2. The deuteron fuses with an additional proton to form Helium-3.
3. Two Helium-3 nuclei fuse to create Beryllium-6, but this is unstable and disintigrates into two protons and Helium-4.
4. The last reaction also releases two neutrons, two positrons, gamma rays and a great deal of heat.

Thus the fusion process takes three steps, and several different particles have to collide with each other, unlike in the deuterium-deuterium reaction, where there is just one step and one particle.

Thus the role of probability steps in. The collisions have to be highly probable for the fusion reaction to be sustainable. For the reaction to be probable, the gas has to be dense as well as hot and energetic.

The plasma accelerator I have designed can compress gas to an extremely dense pressure at the same time it is accelerating it. In fact the process of acceleration will massively increase the density of each pocket of the plasma. This dense pressure will only be need for a very short space of time, until the plasma reaches the end of the tube.

While there are engineering problems, I think the inherent design of the design of the device is making everything fall into place.

Also with hydrogen, a lower velocity would be required for fusion compared to deuterium, as a much lower impact energy is required. Thus a hydrogen fusion device can be called a relatively high compression/high acceleration/low velocity device compared to the deuterium's relatively low compression/low acceleration/high velocity device. What the two processes differ on mainly would be the rate of acceleration.

Thus plasma fusion is technically possible. The engineering problems do not appear to be beyond current technology. It is certainly worth a try.