Nuclear fusion
From apm
Most speculative potential applications
Types of fusion
pursuable:
- envirounmentally friendly
- low cost
- relatively small and lightweight
Magnetic enclosure
- reduction of weight
- limit for magnetic fields unclear (severe)
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
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?
