Friday, September 25, 2015

Small-scale nuclear fusion provides energy in Gothenburg – New Technology

       

After shooting the laser on ultra dense heavy hydrogen, deuterium, a team of researchers at Gothenburg and the University of Iceland, an unexpected discovery. Quantities with high energy particles were formed, indicating that fusion occurred. The strange thing was that there were hardly any neutrons, a type of particle that is normally produced in the experiments when the atomic nuclei merge, merge. Professor Leif Holmlid and his colleagues could not understand where the energy went and looked for all types of particles. Then it turned out that instead of neutrons had formed rapid heavy electrons, called muons.

– Muons are much less dangerous and easier to handle than neutrons that can cause severe radiation injuries, says Leif Holmlid, professor emeritus at the University of Gothenburg.

Nuclear fusion is started with a laser beam heats the ultra-dense deuterium plasma with a temperature of 50 million K. The heat energy may nuclei located near each other to fuse. They then release the energy that drives the merger further. The muons formed decomposes in a few microseconds to ordinary electrons and similar particles.

– We have for the first time been able to report a merger process reach breakeven, thus providing more energy than what you enter, says Leif Holmlid.

The new findings presented in articles in three scientific journals: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Review of Scientific Instruments and AIP Advances.

Now further research to produce a generator directly extracting electrical energy from the process.

– We aim to have a prototype in three years, says Leif Holmlid.

He hopes that the new merger process to be used in small-scale nuclear fusion reactors with ultra-dense deuterium as fuel. It would mean eco-friendly heat and electricity at a low cost.

Ultra-dense deuterium is produced from heavy hydrogen, deuterium. It is an extremely heavy and compact materials, where the distance between the atoms is much smaller than in normal matter.

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