Fusion vs Fission. Fusion lighter elements to heavier elements. Fission heavier elements to lighter elements. Fusion more efficient then fusion when optimal used and designed.
Methods of fusion, magnets, lasers, Farnsworth. NIF uses lasers and deuterium. Lasers hit deuterium after reflecting off gold tube then create a field of xrays which then compact deuterium.
Magnet confinement fusion reactor: ITER. (Joke: Eats funds, 16 billion dollars.) Like a florescent light bulb to create plasma and use magnets to focus and control the stream of plasma. Turn the tube into a doughnut and eliminate the inefficiency with the ends. Magnets are made out of superconducting material. Take 30-60 years to construct.
Takes forever even to get access to play with the unit and it costs so much that not many experiments are run.
Farnsworth reactor (IEC Fusion). Use electrostatic field to control plasma. Vacuum chamber with a spherical grid or electrode in the middle. Ionize the chamber after injecting deuterium. 3 pathways deuterium + deuterium reaction can go. Deuterium Proton Neutron + Electron (Hydrogen + Neutron). The reaction creates helium 4 that does not want to stay together. If it does it releases gamma ray. Or releases gamma ray and becomes helium 3. Or may release Tritium. (I think)
High Voltage: 10Kev to 120Kev. More the current the better. To get voltage: Regulated lab supply, X-ray, neon, etc…
High Vacuum: Get rid of other things in chamber. Vacuum pump, Roughing pump, Diffusion pump, Turbo pump, Welch 14000, really small Edwards diffusion pump.
Nuclear Instrumentation: Geiger Tube, Neutron Detection, Counter/Scaler, Bubble Detector, Activation. To be safe and a way to measure neutrons (Boron Trifloried filled tube is detector).
Safe: Leaded glass, xrays produced at 50,000 volts.
Pressurized Deuterium gas (problems getting it). Pressurized research grade from a big company. NRC (Nuclear Regulation) Electrolysis unit. LOTS of regulation on deuterium. Expensive. 600$ (400$) shipping. (People make meth with it)
Heavy water: Platinum electrodes, Electrolysis, salt water, split into deuterium and oxygen. Regulator valve and filter to make deuterium gas.
Helium 3 cheaper to mine on moon then to make on earth.
Turns on Roughing pump, pumps chamber down in stages by opening different valves, turns on power supply to fuel system. Turns on diffusion pump to heat up oil. Neutrons slowed down by paraffin wax so detector can detect them. Has uranium to calibrate counters. To get Gamma vs Neutron peak. Geiger counter to count radioactivity and wants to beat it with reactor. Just under 8000 count after a min. Vacuum good enough to generate plasma. Increases voltage. Pressure drops voltage must increase. A few faint glows, as he is trying to get the reaction between 20 and 30 thousand volts. Still a plasma discharge and not fusion. Cosmic rays energetic wake up neutron detector.
Bursts of plasma, one faint purplish plasma glow. Not required to have plasma in chamber to produce fusion. People say glow less mode more efficient then with plasma. More and more glows and neutrons as he tunes the device. Eventually he gets a stable flowing reaction.
Star in a Jar. Going from water to a star. Next round of experiments may include computer tuning/etc.
fusor.net – Paul Schatzkin – native of nashville, creator of fusor.net
This reactor is actually far away from the first farnsworth reactor design.
The guy is focusing on programming because the problems are easy and quicker to solve.
More efficient with better fuel but better ways to make it more efficient.
The electrode in the center? Different shapes of reactors work in different ways. Different shapes of vacuum chambers: Spheres, cylinders, etc. Match geometry of grid to geometry of chamber. 70 percent in size the grid should be vs 100 percent of the chamber.
The tube type laser guys know how to get high voltage powersupplies which is the most expensive part of the fuser device.
BTW JohnnyX is the creator of PhreakNIC.