The most significant change is related to the fuel. I have found that the reaction of tritium and deuterium releases free neutrons, which decay after about 8 seconds. Despite this short life, the neutrons are nearly impossible to contain, since they have no charge, and they would travel large distances due to high speed. The neutrons have the potential to cause significant harm to anything that they hit by making them radioactive. The reaction of deuterium with helium 3 produces a very small number of neutrons, therefore, it might be a better choice. However, the amount of energy required to fuse these elements is higher, and would need a more powerful reactor.

This is to explain my new design for a fusion reactor. It would be the first working fusion reactor and would revolutionize the world of energy.

The concept:

There will be a long narrow tube made of diamond with a hole the diameter of a large atom running through it.  Diamond will be used because it has high pressure and heat resistance and it is also good for heat transfer so the tube won’t become too hot.  A heavy atom will be accelerated from one end of the tube to the other end, Where there will be hydrogen atoms near the ends of the tube.  The force of the heavy atom will fuse the hydrogen atoms.  The energy from fusion will then send the heavy atom towards the other end of the tube and fuse atoms on the other end. Then it would proceed back to the other end of the tube and fuse atoms again, and it will keep doing that until some force stops the large atom.  It would be similar to an internal combustion engine because the heavy atom would keep going back and forth similar to the way that a piston compresses air and fuel in a diesel engine, except it can produce more energy without the pollution.

Generating electricity more directly than other methods:

Unlike both fusion and fossil fuel power generation which all heat water into steam and use steam to turn mechanical turbines, this design can generate electricity in a more direct and efficient way.  The tube would be surrounded by electromagnets that accelerate the heavy charged atom.  Since a particle accelerator is a linear electric motor, you could flip the polarity of the magnets after the fusion starts and it would become a linear generator.  The magnets would convert a portion of the kinetic energy into electricity and still allow the atoms to fuse on the other side.

Tremendous improvement over fission:

There is little radioactive waste produced from the process and once the reaction begins, the only thing it would need to keep going is additional hydrogen.  The only waste would be helium and free neutrons, the free neutrons would have to be held for 8 seconds while they decay and become stable.  It wouldn’t need as much heat as other designs, such as the tokomak because it uses kinetic energy.  The fuel (hydrogen) is easily available.  You could use large systems to provide electricity for homes and buildings.    The simplicity and safety of the design could allow it to be used to power electric cars and boats, which would reduce carbon dioxide emissions.  It would also require less heat than tokomak reactors which need over 100 million K.  And the only external energy needed would be the energy to power the particle accelerator to start the reaction and cooling if the reactor becomes hot.

Why this idea is different:

It uses kinetic energy to power the reaction instead of heat or magnets, so it requires very little external energy.  It could be very small and could possibly be used to power cars or boats.  Other ideas could only be used for power plants.

Safety issues:

There is only one safety issue if the idea works.  That would be beta radiation released by the reaction. Fortunately it is possible to block this radiation with something as thin as aluminum foil.

Next step:

To determine the feasibility of this approach, I would first determine the minimum length of the tube by calculating the speed at which the heavy atoms would need to be accelerated in order to compress and fuse hydrogen.  Then using that information, I could determine the distance I would need to accelerate the atoms in order to achieve speed.  This calculation would be done assuming the maximum power density currently being achieved in other devices such as the CERN or Stanford accelerators.  A diamond tube would then be made with a hole in it the size of a heavy atom, and a length as determined above.  This tube would be surrounded by magnets that could be used to accelerate a charged heavy atom or to generate electricity as the charged atom passes through its field.  The heavy atom should be accelerated from one end of the tube to the other and then the polarity of the magnets should be switched so the reactor acts like a generator.  If the hydrogen doesn’t fuse, then make the tube longer and try again.  If the hydrogen atoms or the heavy atom break apart, then the idea doesn’t work or the tube is too long.  If the reactor explodes then the diamond is too thin, and if the diamond melts or burns then the idea doesn’t work.

© Gabriel Bay 2009