Fusion energy from a D-D reaction + A bit of Fusion Physics

If you wonder how/why fusion works, or how/why the Fusor works, look here first.
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Richard Hull
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Fusion energy from a D-D reaction + A bit of Fusion Physics

Post by Richard Hull »

Wow! I can't believe I haven't done this before now. All this involves some recent discussions I have had with other people related to recovering fusion energy. A lot of pie in the sky stuff related to "what if we had 1e12 fusions per second such as that claimed by the last iteration of fusion in the ITT Farnsworth era?" "What could we do with the debris in the way of energy reclamation?" "How much total fusion energy would the system put out working at that level if in D-D fusion?"

It turns out that it is a mere 1.8 watts of fusion energy, if done in D-D fusion. This figure is not really collectable as 100% of the fusion energy can't really be collected and converted to useful electricity. That is not much in the grand scheme of things, but the ITT team figured it was about 1e8 neutron flux at 6 feet! That is dangerous and nasty without special shielding, which they had in the "cave" God only knows what the X-ray level was!! They also noted that they could only sustain that for about 3-5 minutes, before the fusor and ion guns heated to the point that the numbers fell off considerably.

The average, highly successful amateur fusor generates only micro-watts of fusion energy with about 500 watts applied from the wall outlet to do this!

I have assembled a paper and will submit it here in this FAQ that explains how to compute the total fusion energy released in D-D fusion, (amateur fusion), based on real isotropic neutron numbers that you can prove you have produced per second. It also lets you extrapolate, instantly, to any isotropic D-D neutron emission from my base case of 1 millions neutrons per second, isotropic using simple math and scientific notation.

Near the end of the paper I give the neutron physics involved, (very basic and condensed for the newbie), in a fashion using analogies that I feel are easy to grasp at a fundamental level. Hopefully, It might inspire the best who read it to delve much deeper into the physics of fusion.

Richard Hull
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D-D fusion paper.pdf
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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
Frank Sanns
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Re: Fusion energy from a D-D reaction + A bit of Fusion Physics

Post by Frank Sanns »

Really good paper Richard! That sums it up nicely and goes in step with your recent FAQs post about the effects of small changes within a fusion. Anything that is changed in the Fusor can improve or reduce the efficiency of a device that is a net loser by so much that those minor changes are lost in the noise of inefficiency. This is true with ALL of the fusion concepts out there spending billions or trillions of dollars.
Achiever's madness; when enough is still not enough. ---FS
We have to stop looking at the world through our physical eyes. The universe is NOT what we see. It is the quantum world that is real. The rest is just an electron illusion. ---FS
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Richard Hull
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Re: Fusion energy from a D-D reaction + A bit of Fusion Physics

Post by Richard Hull »

Thanks for the kind words Frank. The newbies would love this treatment if only they would read it. This goes along with the complaint "why do the same thing over and over." We are not trying to make any power.
Each of us actually working with the fusor have out own goals in mind.

This FAQ is to give a decent grounding in the physics for the noob.

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
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Richard Hull
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Re: Fusion energy from a D-D reaction + A bit of Fusion Physics

Post by Richard Hull »

4/15/22 restored missing PDF from original post.

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
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