Greetings,
I was curious if anyone has used natural lithium in a fusor with a TIER of around 10^8 Bq. By use, I just mean to have placed it inside of or right by the fusor during its operation.
If so, were there any noted changes in the lithium such as a build up of deuterium? Would a build up of deuterium theoretically occur? Thank you.
Josh
Use of pure natural lithium in a high-yield fusor
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- Rich Feldman
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Re: Use of pure natural lithium in a high-yield fusor
Josh, it's best to do that kind of experiment with a quantitative forecast about the outcome.
Exercises for you, starting with overly simple ones:
1. Suppose you have a 1 cm thick slab of natural Li, with some flux of thermal neutrons coming from one side. What fraction of the neutrons will be stopped by Li-6 nuclei, with their 940 barn cross section?
2. Propose a simple geometry, e.g. spherical jacket. Choose a realistic neutron production rate, and assume (for simplicity) that all the neutrons are thermalized without loss. How many will reach the lithium in a day?
3. Then how many atoms of reaction products will there be? In total, and per trillion atoms of lithium? How might one detect them?
Hint: familiar activation experiments detect products that are radioactive, with half-lives measured in seconds or minutes.
The only radioactive product I can imagine from n + Li reactions is tritium, which is on the order of 10 million times less active per atom.
Exercises for you, starting with overly simple ones:
1. Suppose you have a 1 cm thick slab of natural Li, with some flux of thermal neutrons coming from one side. What fraction of the neutrons will be stopped by Li-6 nuclei, with their 940 barn cross section?
2. Propose a simple geometry, e.g. spherical jacket. Choose a realistic neutron production rate, and assume (for simplicity) that all the neutrons are thermalized without loss. How many will reach the lithium in a day?
3. Then how many atoms of reaction products will there be? In total, and per trillion atoms of lithium? How might one detect them?
Hint: familiar activation experiments detect products that are radioactive, with half-lives measured in seconds or minutes.
The only radioactive product I can imagine from n + Li reactions is tritium, which is on the order of 10 million times less active per atom.
All models are wrong; some models are useful. -- George Box
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Re: Use of pure natural lithium in a high-yield fusor
Greetings,
I was more curious if anyone had done anything before. At the moment, I'm not really in a position to do it for myself. Thank you.
Josh
I was more curious if anyone had done anything before. At the moment, I'm not really in a position to do it for myself. Thank you.
Josh
- Richard Hull
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Re: Use of pure natural lithium in a high-yield fusor
The answer is NO! At least no one here is that pro-active. 99.999% build a demo fusor, real fusor or nothing at all and then, disappear forever.
Lately, we have had one or two super "doer" heroes, but they are almost as rare as real usable power fusion, which doesn't exist at all.
Richard Hull
Lately, we have had one or two super "doer" heroes, but they are almost as rare as real usable power fusion, which doesn't exist at all.
Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment