Mr. Fusion...for real?
Labels:
science,
technology
The winner of the International Academy of Science's Outstanding Technology of the Year Award (2006) is the Inertial-Electrodynamic Fusion (IEF) Device. From their article:
Dr. Bussard and his team at Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation, after close to 20 years of hard work, have developed a revolutionary radiation-free fusion process that could change the world as we know it today.
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The fusion process recommended by Dr. Bussard takes boron-11 and fuses a proton to it, producing, in its excited state, a carbon-12 atom. This excited carbon-12 atom decays to beryllium-8 and helium-4. Beryllium-8 very quickly (in 10-13 s) decays into two more helium-4 atoms. This is the only nuclear-energy releasing process in the whole world that releases fusion energy and three helium atoms -- and no neutrons. This reaction is completely radiation free.
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Dr. Bussard's Inertial Electrostatic Fusion offers:
- Small, efficient power reactors, 1-3% the size of current magnetic confinement reactors.
- Clean, radiation-free energy utilizing p B-11.
- Relatively simple engineering with commercial viability in 6-10 years.
- Low cost ($150-200 million from program inception to demonstration of clean power.)
1 comment:
Link to videos.google.com for Bussard Fusion video?
The commentary I've seen on many, many other sites seems woefully under-informed, and this stems from people not watching Bussard in action during the 1.5h video at Google HQ.
This is a VERY exciting development, and even for non-physicist and non-engineering types, the history of the project is fascinating.
Thanks for logging this.
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