Re:Nuclear fusion 'will work' (auto-starting audio)
by queensnake on Monday September 12, 2011 @12:35AM
(#2985849)
How about that - I thought it was all about the binding energy curve: http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/fi/fi_bs/images/fig2_147...
where, as the diagram shows, fission comes up from the heavier elements (less energy difference) and fusion from the lighter (greatly more).
Re:Nuclear fusion 'will work' (auto-starting audio)
by neutronicus on Monday September 12, 2011 @07:09PM
(#2989243)
Per fusion event, you get about 14 MeV to the about 200 MeV you get per fission event. It's true that the binding energy per nucleon is higher, but there are many fewer nucleons.
What the "blanket" does at this point is exert pressure on the "core", which would be beginning to blow apart in a conventional nuclear device. Keeping the "core" together for just that small bit of time longer allows it to remain supercritical for just that small bit of time longer, with the energy release growing exponentially with a time constant of 10^-7 seconds.