Microdetonative Fusion

[djolds1]

Anyone familiar with any work on Friedwardt Winterberg's concepts
in microdetonation ICF, which he explored in some papers c. 2000-
2003?

Basic overview below:
http://tinyurl.com/ac49n
http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/a ... rview.html

The full papers (found via EBSCO search) expand somewhat beyond
this basic concept; use of a U238 jacket for boosted output, using
the conical target DT fuel as a spark plug to fire off DD fuel in an
extended cylinder of fuel, ect.

Limited citations available on the web:
http://www.znaturforsch.com/58a/58a0612.pdf
http://www.znaturforsch.com/59a/59a0325.pdf

Duane

[Edward Miller]

Thank you for posting this.

IMHO this looks like MTF, done by Tuck. Micro H-bombs.

[djolds1]

My pleasure.

Uses high density conical targets of DT rather than the preheated
plasma of MTF. Definitely a micro-HBomb, especially in the U238
or Thorium boosted configurations, tho a pure-fusion detonation
is the primary effect I'm aware of. ICF essentially.

The claimed gain of 1000x is... tremendous.

Good news, if true.

Duane

[djolds1]

Winterberg's primary paper from an EBSCO search.

[Steven Sesselmann]

Interesting concept...but how are they hoping to extract any energy from it?

Will it not blow up the devise with every micro explosion?

Steven

[djolds1]

Steven Sesselmann wrote:
> Interesting concept...but how are they hoping to extract any
> energy from it?

If using a DD, DT, LiD or other high neutron output reaction, surround the reaction area in a blanket of liquid lithium, and then use the lithium to both breed more Tritium and absorb the thermal energy from the neutrons. Run the liquid lithium thru a secondary loop to extract the heat as steam, and then on to the standard turbine.

If using a reaction that mostly produces alpha particles, use direct conversion as proposed in Bussard's IEC concepts.

> Will it not blow up the devise with every micro explosion?

The fuel cone/rod and transmission lines, sure, but I can't see that manufacturing those would be significantly more difficult than producing a fuel pellet for any standard ICF fusion concept.

A metallic liner, a small sparkplug quantity of DT or LiD, a larger
quantity of DD once the sparkplug gets the detonation wave going, and two lengths of conductive cable for the transmission lines. Hell, IIRC its possible to use conductive liquid for the transmission lines, so you only need some quick-extruded polymer cable to stabilize the fuel pellet/cone/rod where you want it. Or you can drop/inject the fuel pellet into the reaction chamber and rely on precise timing for the liquid transmission lines. But IMO that'd be too cute by half for what appears to be a very scaleable and robust concept.

Duane

[Steven Sesselmann]

Duane, I see your point, the thing is technically possible. Even the highly
successfull internal combustion engine was a highly unpractical concept,
but it worked.

Some kind of machine gun that blows up consecutive tiny pellets of
Deuterium and Tritium might work, but it's not excactly neat.

Steven

[djolds1]

Its basically the same concept as ICF fusion. The only differences are how the fuel pellet is manufactured (with transmission lines attached instead of being a simple sphere), and how its ignited, with a single-axis relativistic electron beam instead of three-axis lasers or particle beams.

As long as the reaction chamber is evacuated and/or built to sufficient tolerances, I can't see that the explosions are much of a problem engineering-wise. They certainly haven't been for the last 30 years of ICF work.

Duane

[Javier Lopez]

I am sorry but I does not understand the picture of the cone and the conductor. I see two negative potential, so no current appear. Can anyone explain it, please?

[dlsworks]

this was actually the origanl idea that I had concerning micro-fusion bursts.....quite novel and metastable reaction as per current controllable confinment technology, ...I thought.

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