Re:Nuclear fusion: it's time for a reality check
by ghaff on Wednesday January 29, 2025 @09:13AM
(#42865091)
The materials question is interesting to me because my Masters is mostly related to Material Science. My thesis advisor did some research in this area--mostly with ZR3AL as I recall. My thesis was with a related material (NiAl) for potential uses related to turbines. The aluminide alloys never really worked out for a variety of reasons. My advisor ended up pretty much doing water ice-related research full-time (which he had just started doing when I was a grad student) and that's pretty much what he spent his career doing. The US Army has? a lab in Hanover NH and, at the time, they were very interested in better understanding the properties of ice, in part, presumably because of the possibility of a land war with the Soviet Union in Alaska.
Re:Nuclear fusion: it's time for a reality check
by aqme28 on Wednesday January 29, 2025 @08:50AM
(#42864850)
> The neutron corrosion alone is very serious problem that I doubt can be fixed.
It can be fixed, because some fuels don't produce neutrons. But aneutronic fusion is like two orders of magnitude more difficult than Deuterium-Tritium. Still, it might be necessary for any reasonable application. One of my professors was a big proponent in aneutronic fusion even for Tokamaks.
The neutron corrosion alone is very serious problem that I doubt can be fixed. There is only one material that can withstand it, its called neutronium and we all know why we cant even use it on earth, not to mention about producing one. The Li-7 trick they are currently trying to use is not convicing me. Whats the point of it if you need to stop reactor every few years to replace entire Li-7 shielding. Lithium itself aint cheap and we basically will destroy it in such reactors (non-recycleable).
The hope lies in Fission Reactors, breeder one. Unfortunately, there is big tabu here because those can be used for enrichment, and so, for nuclear weapons.