(omg, the sun is blue)
One is at the core of nuclear post-apocalyptia. The other, the core of every sci-fi weapon cabinet.
Just recently, it has been estimated that using extremely short laser pulses to ignite hydrogen and boron-11 would avoid production of neutrons (which generate radiation), resulting in an extremely clean form of nuclear power.
<blockquote><p><em>An international team of scientists are looking at a new way of creating energy from nuclear fusion. The process could result in no radioactivity, produce little pollution and provide a cheap abundant source of electricity. The Australian-led team of scientists have used computer models to simulate nuclear fusion without the extreme temperatures currently needed for other fusion methods. Their findings appear in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.
Emeritus Professor Heinrich Hora of the Department of Theoretical Physics at the University of New South Wales, who is leading the research effort, says the process would rely on a new generation of extremely powerful and very fast lasers now being developed. "The key is a very carefully controlled extremely short laser pulse essential for ignition. The pulse would ignite a fuel made of ordinary hydrogen and boron-11," says Hora. "The idea of a hydrogen and boron fusion reaction is interesting because it wouldn't cause neutron production. Neutrons are a problem because they generate radioactivity."
Hora says his team were originally developing computer models using next generation lasers to duplicate the work being done at the new US$4 billion (A$4.34 billion) National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States.
The US scientists are developing what is currently the world's largest laser to ignite highly compressed spheres of deuterium-tritium fuel in a nuclear fusion reaction. The laser can produce a pulse of a few billionths of a second duration, which produces 500 times more power than all US power stations combined.
Hora's team originally rejected the idea of a hydrogen-boron fuel for their simulations "because the higher temperatures and compression needed, made it a hundred thousand times more difficult than the Lawrence Livermore approach, making it just about impossible".</em></p></blockquote>
If this possibility pays off, who knows what other technologies it could lead to, or how it could influence growth of other technologies?
Read the rest of the article here.
Spotted @ ABC Science
