News: 0134482421

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Could Spacecraft of the Future Be Powered By 'Lattice Confinement' Nuclear Fusion? (ieee.org)

(Saturday August 08, 2020 @07:34PM (EditorDavid) from the better-than-dilithium dept.)


[1]schwit1 writes:

> Researchers at NASA's Glenn Research Center have now demonstrated [2]a method of inducing nuclear fusion without building a massive [3]stellarator or [4]tokamak . In fact, all they needed was a bit of metal, some hydrogen, and an electron accelerator.

>

> The team believes that their method, called lattice confinement fusion, could be a potential new power source for deep space missions. They have published their results in [5]two [6]papers in [7]Physical Review C ...

>

> "What we did was not cold fusion," says Lawrence Forsley, a senior lead experimental physicist for the project. Cold fusion, the idea that fusion can occur at relatively low energies in room-temperature materials, is viewed with skepticism by the vast majority of physicists. Forsley stresses this is hot fusion, but "We've come up with a new way of driving it."

The article contains a good description of the technical details, and end by summarizing the hopes of the project's analytical physicist and nuclear diagnostics lead. "This method of fusion offers a potentially reliable source for craft operating in places where solar panels may not be useable, for example.

"And of course, what works in space could be used on Earth."



[1] https://slashdot.org/~schwit1

[2] https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/nuclear/nuclear-fusiontokamak-not-included

[3] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/bizarre-reactor-might-save-nuclear-fusion

[4] https://www.iter.org/mach/Tokamak

[5] https://journals.aps.org/prc/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevC.101.044610

[6] https://journals.aps.org/prc/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevC.101.044609

[7] https://journals.aps.org/prc/

Check the trash (Score:1)

by ozduo ( 2043408 )

Look for unwanted electron accelerators

Re: (Score:2)

by lgw ( 121541 )

I'm sure this new fusion technology will have an energy-positive working prototype just 20 years from now.

Re: (Score:2)

by angel'o'sphere ( 80593 )

It is already net energy positive, so what is your point?

It's a dupe (Score:2)

by goombah99 ( 560566 )

not only is it a dupe. It's cold fusion with "cold-fusion" crossed out and "fish license" written in

dilithium crystals (Score:1)

by msmonroe ( 2511262 )

dilithium crystals?

Yes (Score:2)

by nospam007 ( 722110 ) *

We'll call it the Betteridge Drive.

No (Score:2)

by quonset ( 4839537 )

But just maybe, [1]by the power of Slashdot dupes [slashdot.org].

[1] https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/08/05/2358214/nasa-researchers-demonstrate-the-ability-to-fuse-atoms-inside-room-temperature-metals

Non Paywalled (Score:2)

by burtosis ( 1124179 )

Are [1]here [google.com] and [2]here [google.com].

[1] https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C24&q=Novel+nuclear+reactions+observed+in+bremsstrahlung-irradiated+deuterated+metals&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DmRa_FxHk-nMJ

[2] https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C24&q=+Nuclear+fusion+reactions+in+deuterated+metals&btnG=

Let's get it working first... (Score:2)

by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 )

After we've done that, we can worry about where we choose to deploy it.

Two of the same? (Score:2)

by AndyKron ( 937105 )

Is this comparable with cold fusion?

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