Laser-optical path to nuclear energy without radioactivity: Fusion of hydrogen–boron by nonlinear force driven plasma blocks

Hora, Heinrich; Miley, George H.; Ghoranneviss, M.; Malekynia, B.; Azizi, N.

doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2009.07.024

Cited by 33 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…However, it seems unreachable with conventional fusion approaches because it requires a very high temperature1, and consequently a very high laser energy, and it seems difficult to achieve a positive energy balance taking into account the nuclear energy release and the radiation losses2. Radically different approaches and schemes must be sought34. Taking advantage of the fast evolution of the short, high-intensity lasers5, we proposed a new scheme6 based on fusion reactions initiated by a laser-accelerated proton beam78 and we demonstrated its high efficiency compared to previous approaches910.…”

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confidence: 99%

Laser-initiated primary and secondary nuclear reactions in Boron-Nitride

Labaune

Baccou

Yahia

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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Nuclear reactions initiated by laser-accelerated particle beams are a promising new approach to many applications, from medical radioisotopes to aneutronic energy production. We present results demonstrating the occurrence of secondary nuclear reactions, initiated by the primary nuclear reaction products, using multicomponent targets composed of either natural boron (B) or natural boron nitride (BN). The primary proton-boron reaction (p + 11B → 3 α + 8.7 MeV), is one of the most attractive aneutronic fusion reaction. We report radioactive decay signatures in targets irradiated at the Elfie laser facility by laser-accelerated particle beams which we interpret as due to secondary reactions induced by alpha (α) particles produced in the primary reactions. Use of a second nanosecond laser beam, adequately synchronized with the short laser pulse to produce a plasma target, further enhanced the reaction rates. High rates and chains of reactions are essential for most applications.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser-initiated primary and secondary nuclear reactions in Boron-Nitride

Labaune

Baccou

Yahia

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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“…Any hope of this reaction was excluded by using the thermal equilibrium conditions of spherical laser compression and ignition which turned out to be about 100,000 times more difficult than the DT reaction (Moses 2008(Moses , 2010. When using the here explained nonlinear force block generation for side-on ignition of uncompressed fuel, it turned out (Hora et al 2009a) that the ignition is less than by a factor ten than for DT. We mention the following new results for other fusion reactions where primarily no neutrons are generated as in the case of HB11 giving the threshold ps ignition energy flux density E * th and the ignition temperature T * in the reaction front generated within about a nanosecond a stationary value to confirm ignition.…”

Section: Fusion Energy Without Dangerous Radioactivitymentioning

confidence: 96%

“…DT E * th = 4.7 × 10 8 J/cm 2 T * = 7.2 keV (Hora et al 2008;Hora 2009) p-11 B E * th = 1.5 × 10 9 J/cm 2 T * = 87 keV (Hora et al 2009a(Hora et al , 2009b p-7 Li E * th = 2.5 × 10 9 J/cm 2 T * = 69 keV 3 He-3 He E * th = 2.7 × 10 9 J/cm 2 T * = 88 keV All hydrodynamic computations of the kind of Chu (1972) automatically included the bremsstrahlung emission to be then less than the gained fusion energy for incident energy flux densities E * above the here given threshold values. A decrease of E * th and of T * was relatively large if the inhibition factor for the reduction of the thermal conductivity due to electric double layers (Hora et al 1984) in the extreme inhomogeneous plasma, and if the Gabor collective model was used for DT.…”

Section: Fusion Energy Without Dangerous Radioactivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Strong shock-phenomena at petawatt-picosecond laser side-on ignition fusion of uncompressed hydrogen-boron11

Hora

Miley

Yang

et al. 2011

Astrophys Space Sci

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An extreme anomaly of laser-plasma interaction with petawatt-picosecond (PW-ps) pulses of very high contrast ratio for suppression of relativistic self-focusing permitted a come-back of the Bobin-Chu side-on ignition of uncompressed deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion fuel. The plasma blocks for the side-on ignition have to be produced by the well confirmed nonlinear force acceleration which is about 100,000 times higher than thermo-kinetic fluid-dynamic acceleration for comparison with astrophysical cases. It is essential that the dielectric plasma properties within the nonlinear force are used. Using the measured ion beam densities above 10 11 A s/cm 2 the ignition mechanism needed numerical and theoretical studies of extremely strong shock phenomena. When extending these results to the side-on ignition of uncompressed hydrogen-boron11 (HB11), surprisingly, the ignition by this shock mechanism was only about 10 times more difficult than for DT in contrast to ignition by spherical laser driven compression using thermo-kinetic conditions in which case HB11 ignition is 100,000 times more difficult than DT.

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“…Computations for non-thermal equilibrium conditions of laser ignition of solid state fusion targets were performed [24][25] with the result that for DT fusion, an irradiated energy density within one picosecond had to have an energy flux threshold in the range of few times of R = 10 8 J/cm 2 had to initiate the fusion flame for the reaction in the uncompressed solid density fusion fuel the for plane wave front and target geometry. These computations had to be updated in view of collective collisions and inhibition of thermal conduction due to double layer effects [26] [27]. When instead of DT the fusion reaction cross section of HB11 were used [28][29], the energy flux threshold R arrived in the same range R. This was the surprising result for HB11 compared with DT that the ignition had an increase of the fusion condition fife orders of magnitudes higher against the classical value at thermal equilibrium.…”

Section: Aneutronic Clean Boron Fusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser Boron Fusion Reactor With Picosecond Petawatt Block Ignition

Hora

Eliezer

Wang

et al. 2018

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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Fusion of hydrogen with the boron Isotope 11, HB11 at local thermal equilibrium LTE, is 10 5 times more difficult than fusion of deuterium and tritium, DT. If -in contrastextreme non-equilibrium plasma conditions are used with picoseconds laser pulses of more than 10PW power, the difficulties for fusion of HB11 change to the level of DT. This is based on a non-thermal transfer of laser energy into macroscopic plasma motion by nonlinear (ponderomotive) forces as theoretically predicted and experimentally confirmed as "ultrahigh acceleration". Including elastic nuclear collisions of the alpha particles from HB11 reactions results in an avalanche process such that the energy gains from HB11 fusion is nine orders of magnitudes above the classical values. In contrast to preceding laser fusion with spherical compression of the fuel, the side-on direct drive fusion of cylindrical uncompressed solid boron fuel trapped by magnetic fields above kilotesla, permits a reactor design with only one single laser beam for ignition within a spherical reactor. It appears to be potentially possible with present day technology to build a reactor for environmentally fully clean, low-cost and lasting power generation.

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Laser-optical path to nuclear energy without radioactivity: Fusion of hydrogen–boron by nonlinear force driven plasma blocks

Cited by 33 publications

References 24 publications

Laser-initiated primary and secondary nuclear reactions in Boron-Nitride

Laser-initiated primary and secondary nuclear reactions in Boron-Nitride

Strong shock-phenomena at petawatt-picosecond laser side-on ignition fusion of uncompressed hydrogen-boron11

Laser Boron Fusion Reactor With Picosecond Petawatt Block Ignition

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