Nuclear fusion
From apm
Most speculative potential applications
[Todo: fill this topic skeleton]
Types of fusion
pursuable:
- envirounmentally friendly
- low cost
- relatively small and lightweight
Magnetic enclosure
- reduction of weight
- limit for magnetic fields unclear (severe)
- thermal power densities -> refractory mateials
Inertial fusion
- macroscopic vibration damping
- neutral particle carriage acceleration
- highly symmetric enclosement (thermal and quantum mechanical uncertainty)
- low reflectivity of hydrogen - minimal isolating plasma shell thickness (severe!)
- fast cavity cleanout
- fast radiation seals
- carriage particle accelerators
- small scale Laser particle accelerators
General notes
- Thermal throughput bottleneck thermal energy transmission
- self repair of thermal and radiation damage
- isotope sorting (e.g. tuning fork method) & closed loop nuclear waste recycling
- usage for spacecraft propulsion possible? - earth or space only?
- Implications of Liouville's theorem or "why nuclear mechanosynthesis don't work" - detour over thermal step unavoidable
- surface power/(heat flor) density limit - capsule based thermal energy transport (asymmetric figure eight loop in tokamaks?) may move it further down to more tacklable values.
- consistent high temperature stable designs SiC (H-passivation?)