Aneutronic Fusion Plasma Results 2023

Every nuclear fusion story starts (or has somewhere in it), “the same process that powers the sun”. While that sounds high tech, it doesn’t really mean anything.

What they are trying to convey is “fusing lighter elements to heavier one(s)”. In the news of “ignition” (it was actually net gain, Q, where more power was released than used to generate the reaction; in the net gain, Q = 1.3, but to get the reaction running on its own you need a Q = 3 level). What is not explained is the fuel is two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, that are heated to overcome the natural Coulomb force keeping like charged particles apart. This, thanks to E=mc*2, generates a fast moving neutron and heat. This neutron flies off and hits an energy blanket surrounding the fusion reactor transferring energy to a usable form that is then used to turn a generator.

Aneutronic nuclear fusion does not create a neutron (hence the Greek use of “a” in front meaning “not”). As a fuel source, boron is used (B11, specifically) and hit with a proton. Energy is added and the result is alpha particles, three of them, which are charged helium-4 nuclei.

Instead of a fast moving neutron that ionizes any material (irradiates) it runs into (except lithium which makes a tritium particle which is then used as fuel for future fusion reactions), the charged alpha particles can be converted directly into electrical current: energy!

The problem is that this reaction is more difficult to engineer than D-T fusion that is in the news…

Until last month!

TAE Technologies on Feb. 28, in a peer-reviewed paper published by the scientific journal Nature Communications, said its research supports the path to providing electricity from nuclear reactors fueled with hydrogen-boron, also known as p-B11 or p11B. TAE said its program, done in collaboration with Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), focused on the first-ever hydrogen-boron fusion experiments in a magnetically confined fusion plasma.

Powermag.com, February 28, 2023 - Group Touts Milestone for Hydrogen-Boron Fusion Power.

After all the glory being hogged up by hot D-T nuclear fusion we get a major announcement from the even more difficult to produce Aneutronic fusion world say, “our idea will work!”

The plan being for TAE (formerly, Tri Alpha Energy, now you don’t have to look up what that means!), to make another reactor showing net gain (Q > 1), called Copernicus, then a reactor called Da Vinci.

It is nice to see that the extra effort put into the more difficult fusion project is paying off!

We are on the cusp of either self destruction or a revolutionary power break through with several nuclear fusion devices coming online.

And still no word from Lockheed ST-5, Demo, ST-X…



PS - Sorry for the science lesson! And if I made any mistakes they are mine since this is mostly off the top of my head on the subject of nuclear fusion. I did have to verify what an alpha particle is (google)

Sad truth to the matter is even if they solve the problem tomorrow it will be 5-10 years before they can make it commercially available. As of now I'm still guessing 20 years + yet.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

What science. Do not understand anything and think it will be easier to build a magnetic motor.

But got to S&F you for trying to educate me and your effort

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

If that is feasible would there be radioactive waste. Like we have in nuclear reactors? Or might it be clean energy?

a reply to: ntech

Ahem, *Lockheed*



They had it figured out probably by 1990 which is why the main guy was blown away by the announcement in 2014 about the Compact Fusion Reactor.

My guess is that they are waiting until science catches up to their magnetic requirements which is only 15T and 20T. The superconducting magnet scientists are pushing 40T in the lab consistently. Once a manufacturing pipeline is created then I would expect Lockheed to glom on. Which is a good reason to follow Commenwealth Fusion (they have a magnet manufacturer in place).

I am guessing 90’s because what do you do with all that energy?

Ahem, *black triangles*, ahem.

a reply to: midicon

With D-T fusion, the radiation is only beta radiation which has a half life of about 50 years.

So in 25 years, only 3/4 of the materials are radioactive. In 50 years, only half. In 100 years it is not harmful anymore.

With aneutronic fusion there is no radiation.

With current fission reactors you are talking thousands of years for the waste to become close to hazardous!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

The PowerMag article states:

The California-based group TAE said its program, done in collaboration with Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS)researchers pointed out that while the reaction did not produce net energy, it demonstrates viability of aneutronic fusion and reliance on hydrogen-boron. Other companies, including Australia’s HB11 Energy, also has yet to produce net energy from its technology.

At first, I asked, "Why bother posting?" Then I scrolled through the LHD Project's other, um, projects:

www-lhd.nifs.ac.jp...
Specifically this one: www-lhd.nifs.ac.jp...

If only they were all working together, eh?
Go humans, go!

I’m not sure that’s how it works. Doesn’t half life of 50 years mean there is a 50% reduction in the amount of material every 50 years? So that after 100 years there is 25% of the original amount left.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

a reply to: Dalamax

It is the radiation life time.

So if you have 10 pounds of radioactive stuff, like the reactor container, you will have 10 pounds of it left.

The half life is how much radioactive stuff is left. So if it has a 50 year half life, only half of the material will be radioactive, 5 pounds (you can’t really separate the material only let the radiation leak away). So double the half life amount and then you have no more material that has radioactive stuff left.

This makes fusion “cleaner” than fission and Aneutronic fusion even more clean because it doesn’t irradiate any matter.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: midicon

With aneutronic fusion there is no radiation.

With current fission reactors you are talking thousands of years for the waste to become close to hazardous!

This is extremely interesting, s&f!

So, it sounds like we should also be pushing for manufacturing a number of LFTR's to consume all of the current stockpiles of nuclear waste while we're building these new fusion reactors, and decommission (or convert to fusion) the LFTRs once the stockpiles are consumed. Win-win-win!

a reply to: tanstaafl

The thorium reactor in Norway (??) has been through a fuel test for over 5 years. It is on the list of regulatory approval (this year sometime).

Now if that gets the world’s attention then we can start to use up the uranium material destined for fission reactors.

The small modular reactor (SMR) has been approved (I think it has happened) but only for one version and the purpose it was designed for.

Fusion reactors are on the list for regulatory approval but it is not a huge deal because we don’t know of a working fusion reactor. A couple of years ago some university laid out what was needed for regulatory approval of fusion reactors and it is a general roadmap that is being followed.

My big idea is to skip steam turbines altogether and go to supercritical CO2 turbines. They are smaller and more efficient (they are being cleared to sit on existing facilities, like coal power plants) and are being eyed as a drop in replacement for steam generators.

How would that be for high tech power generation: SMRs and nuclear fusion reactors powering SCO2 turbines? And older nuclear reactors replaced by thorium?

That is why I am not depressed about the future! I am bummed that I am reaching that age where I cannot wait around for 25 more years

But neither can the planet.

I humbly submit that the state of research and engineering in this field has been smothered with interference.

The principles that they are applying and the engineering they have been implementing are NOT "new."

It seems encouraging that scientists and theoreticians are being vindicated from the weaponized media that maligned their efforts for decades.

It seems to me that the next obstacles to actually bringing truly zero-cost energy to the population will be commerce. Wherever existing 'commerce' is threatened by obsolescence and or innovation, "politics" will then begin to interfere... followed by - you guessed it - the media again...

Watch for articles to pop up out there, talking about how this is a "pipe dream" and 'unrealistic' in our current world situation. Trust me, they are inbound.

a reply to: Maxmars

What you have described is/has already happened. There is some guy in Europe who does nothing but post rebuttals against every fusion news release saying “money grab”, “bad science”, “fusion can’t be done in any manner described”, etc.

He has a point in that most of the news stories are about “what we will do with zero carbon” electricity and not the actual science. And that is why I have gone to the source of each story to read the actual article. It takes some time, a little math, and some physics equations but you can not hide what is/is not happening with the actual plasma and hence the reactors.

For example, the OP article has to be read to situate it within the field of nuclear fusion. A high energy proton beam hits a boron target suspended in a magnetic field. The energy creates a plasma and alpha particles. The article states that it is not the actual end product that they are claiming will be produced but a POC that the reaction is happening as engineered.

Like all fusion news, this is a stepping stone towards the end product.

I haven’t seen the naysayers yet because they haven’t been following this development probably because it is such a monumental undertaking that they chose to ignore it and focus on magnetic confinement fusion (they had a field day with the ITER setback a few months ago).

There is now collaboration between private and government investors because the government keeps pulling funding each time progress is made. Now they can’t.

Regardless of what MSM says about fusion it is going to happen (in the case of Lockheed it already has, imo). Coal as an industry is dead. They can’t keep renewables expensive for ever.

As I have been saying for years, watch for news about transmission and storage. Those two legs are necessary for the fusion stool to stand.

And we forget about the ignorance of paid shills and head to the stars!!