Radical hydrogen
"We are sidestepping all of the scientific challenges that have held fusion energy back for more than half a century," says the director of an Australian company that claims its hydrogen-boron fusion technology is already working a billion times better than expected.
HB11 Energy is a spin-out company that originated at the University of New South Wales, and it announced today a swag of patents through Japan, China and the USA protecting its unique approach to fusion energy generation.
Fusion, of course, is the long-awaited clean, safe theoretical solution to humanity's energy needs. It's how the Sun itself makes the vast amounts of energy that have powered life on our planet up until now. Where nuclear fission – the splitting of atoms to release energy – has proven incredibly powerful but insanely destructive when things go wrong, fusion promises reliable, safe, low cost, green energy generation with no chance of radioactive meltdown.
It's just always been 20 years away from being 20 years away. A number of multi-billion dollar projects are pushing slowly forward, from the Max Planck Institute's insanely complex Wendelstein 7-X stellerator to the 35-nation ITER Tokamak project, and most rely on a deuterium-tritium thermonuclear fusion approach that requires the creation of ludicrously hot temperatures, much hotter than the surface of the Sun, at up to 15 million degrees Celsius (27 million degrees Fahrenheit). This is where HB11's tech takes a sharp left turn.
The results of decades of research by Emeritus Professor Heinrich Hora, HB11's approach to fusion does away with rare, radioactive and difficult fuels like tritium altogether – as well as those incredibly high temperatures. Instead, it uses plentiful hydrogen and boron B-11, employing the precise application of some very special lasers to start the fusion reaction.
Here's how HB11 describes its "deceptively simple" approach: the design is "a largely empty metal sphere, where a modestly sized HB11 fuel pellet is held in the center, with apertures on different sides for the two lasers. One laser establishes the magnetic containment field for the plasma and the second laser triggers the ‘avalanche’ fusion chain reaction. The alpha particles generated by the reaction would create an electrical flow that can be channeled almost directly into an existing power grid with no need for a heat exchanger or steam turbine generator."
HB11's Managing Director Dr. Warren McKenzie clarifies over the phone: "A lot of fusion experiments are using the lasers to heat things up to crazy temperatures – we're not. We're using the laser to massively accelerate the hydrogen through the boron sample using non-linear forced. You could say we're using the hydrogen as a dart, and hoping to hit a boron , and if we hit one, we can start a fusion reaction. That's the essence of it. If you've got a scientific appreciation of temperature, it's essentially the speed of atoms moving around. Creating fusion using temperature is essentially randomly moving atoms around, and hoping they'll hit one another, our approach is much more precise."
"The hydrogen/boron fusion creates a couple of helium atoms," he continues. "They're naked heliums, they don't have electrons, so they have a positive charge. We just have to collect that charge. Essentially, the lack of electrons is a product of the reaction and it directly creates the current."
-
NASA rover snaps photo of its most daunting challenge yetEV owners can get free ultraSeth Green's Bored Ape was stolen. Now he can't make his NFT show.Would you rather have Donald Trump as your president or as your father?厚植精神文明沃土 培树司法文明新风Seth Green's Bored Ape was stolen. Now he can't make his NFT show.防疫教学两手抓 生活学习两不误How to use the YouTube mobile app's new dataWhat to expect when a tech bubble burstsFacebook buried a report on popular posts. So much for transparency.
- ·3D Game Rendering 101
- ·Terra returns with Luna 2.0 after crashing the crypto market. It's already tanking again.
- ·'I Love That for You' review: Vanessa Bayer's Showtime comedy is a real treat
- ·Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for June 5
- ·NYT mini crossword answers for August 29
- ·What do North Korea's neighbors want from Trump
- ·Police station improves info for foreign crime victims
- ·US players 'angry, exhausted’, says Rapinoe
- ·Sinner vs. Michelsen 2024 livestream: Watch US Open for free
- ·A micrometeoroid hit NASA's giant Webb telescope, but it's OK
- ·Seth Green's Bored Ape was stolen. Now he can't make his NFT show.
- ·秧苗青青春意浓 田间地头农人忙
- ·By a technicality, August's full moon is blue. Here's why.
- ·Apple's new M2 chip might start shipping this summer
- ·“疆品南下”不停步,再进湾区拓市场
- ·Pompeo to brief Moon on outcome of US
- ·NCT member Taeil leaves band over sexual offense allegations
- ·Koreas begin military talks to discuss easing tensions
- ·Discord blocks iOS users from NSFW servers, blames Apple
- ·Police station improves info for foreign crime victims
- ·9 Planetariums to Get Lost in the Cosmos
- ·Sisyphus puns are on a roll on Twitter
- ·世界第三极 雅安零公里
- ·How to shut down Spot the robot 'dog,' should you ever need to
- ·Get Thee to Totality: Chicago
- ·WhatsApp might add the ability to edit messages
- ·Against All Odds: How Netflix Made It
- ·How to use the YouTube mobile app's new data
- ·加快建设文教新城 不断繁荣城市经济
- ·Battery Virtual Power Plant launches to help with electricity grid stability
- ·护航孩子成长 解决职工后顾之忧
- ·Pompeo: US will ensure verification of North Korea's denuclearization
- ·高速路上摆花瓶代替“警示牌”司机违法被处罚
- ·Instagram adds Amber Alert notifications directly to the app
- ·Nvidia GeForce Now Ultimate vs. New Graphics Card
- ·Cadillac's first electric SUV will arrive early for just under $60,000