Nuclear fission/fusion 6

[desmondray12254]

I've been reading up on this subject lately, and I have been meaning to ask, has anyone tried touse nuclear fission to trigger a nuclear fusion reaction? Or would having 2 reactors in a building to maiintain be too dangerous? I just thought if you could get the fusion reaction to sustain itself, you could then discontionue use of the fission reactor.

 

[itsmoked]

Not quite sure why you would "theoretically" want to do this. You realize that fission is taking apart large heavy elements and fusion is putting together the very smallest and lightest elements? The processes are utterly unrelated. So I am having trouble understanding why you would want the two processes "under one roof" as it were.

 

[desmondray12254]

I have been told fusion reactions are currently just experimental, but they require a vast amount of energy to start. But, I have also heard that it is believed once you get a fusion reaction going well, it has the potential to out-last a fission reaction. I was suggesting that you use some or all of the energy from the fission reaction, that would be used for generating electricity, to start the fission reaction. I realize this would be extremely expensive, but it is just a concept.

 

[tinfoil]

The only useful way so far for fission to assist fusion is the one developed by Edward Teller et al.

To somehow do it in a CONTROLLED way is a whole different story.

 

[BenDutro]

http://www.iter.org

 

[ccw]

In a way, your proposed scenario is how it will be done. A utility fission reactor power station will generate steam, spin the turbine, generate the power, transmit it to the fusion reactor site.
At the site the incoming power will manage the refrigeration, run the vacuum pumps, power the plasma containment and steering magnets, inject the plasma material, power the aux. plasma heaters (microwave, neutral beam injectors, etc.) to start the fusion reactor.

 

[exnavynuke]

If you mean can a fission reactor be used to start a fusion reaction, the answer is no. The temperatures required to fuse hydrogen nuclei (millions of degrees)would melt any fuel and cladding assembly.

As others have stated, the most promising approach is the donut shaped magnetic confinement. There is also some hope in the laser pulsed inertial confinement method, but it's difficult to see how that could provide a continuous source of energy.

 

[Todd619]

You may be interested to check out

http://www.fusor.net

for amature fusion(primarily) and fission discussion. The site is more or less dedicated to the "fusor" a simple electrostatic device that seems to inefficiently produce a fusion reaction (pretty solid evidence it's not an "O.P." or "stripping reaction), but there are discussions there of all forms of energy production.

-Todd M.

 

[Imagineer]

Not to be flippant but the short answer to your question is "Yes, it's called a hydrogen bomb." As exnavynuke pointed out, if one is trying to use the energy of the fission to induce fission, the heat, etc are to great to be uncontained. (Notice, I did not say "uncontrolled". That is a very different thing.)

Imagineer

 

[desmondray12254]

Thank you all for you responses. They have all been very helpful. A special thanks to CCW, Todd619, tinfoil, and BenDutro. An extra special thanks to Imagineer for his creative thinking.