Tri-alpha is another emergent player in the race to master fusion andis also focused on the bismuth reaction. This reaction allows forvastly lower temperatures for energy generation although that isrelative. I would prefer to see the same resources brought to bearon Focus fusion in particular although progress will always beincremental and money can sometimes get in the way. Lack of it oftenallows imagination to establish brilliant work arounds.
Yet there is some intriguing new science happening here that couldchange things so we need to keep our eyes on it.
I suspect that fusion energy is well on the way to been tamed in thenext decade. Certainly researchers are attracting the coin andnobody thinks that the big money programs will be overly useful evenif serious progress is made. Thus unusual approaches are been wellinvestigated.
Of course, it is the bismuth cycle that has thrown open the fieldmore than any other factor simply because it brought the temperaturewithin reach.
Tri-alpha Energy Nuclear Fusion 100MW Project emerging fromStealth Mode
OCTOBER 30, 2012
Tri-alpha Energy(stealth nuclear fusion project that has over $140 million in fundingincluding funding from Goldman Sachs) has a 79 page presentation.
Tri-Alpha structuresin 12C.
Tri-alpha Energy has apatent - Controlled fusion in a field reversed configuration anddirect energy conversion.
The 11B (p,α)αα reaction
* When 675 keVprotons strike 11B, a resonance in 12C is formed at 16.6 MeV having awidth of 300 keV.
* This resonancedecays by emitting a primary α−particle, leading to the firstexcited state of 8Be which is 3 MeV above the ground state. Thisstate decays into two secondary α-particles. σ(α1) = 600 mb!
* Thestate-of-the-art understanding of this reaction came from a 1987study which “proved” that the reaction yielded one highenergy primary α-particle, and two low energy secondary ones.
Our discoveryof TWO high energy α-particles is having a huge impact on thereactor design. They are much easier to extract and convert moreefficiently into electricity.
Physics ReviewLetters - Field Reversed Configuration Confinement Enhancementthrough Edge Biasing and Neutral Beam Injection
ABSTRACT - Fieldreversed configurations (FRCs) with high confinement are obtained inthe C-2 device by combining plasma gun edge biasing and neutral beaminjection. The plasma gun creates an inward radial electric fieldthat counters the usual FRC spin-up. The n=2 rotational instabilityis stabilized without applying quadrupole magnetic fields. The FRCsare nearly axisymmetric, which enables fast ion confinement. Theplasma gun also produces E×B shear in the FRC edge layer, which mayexplain the observed improved particle transport. The FRC confinementtimes are improved by factors 2 to 4, and the plasma lifetimes areextended from 1 to up to 4 ms.
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