Inertial Confinement Fusion:
Sun Power on Earth
A Report by:
RAdm RM Wey
COSR: SFS-SFC
Research is being conducted at the Lawrence Livermore Labs into the feasibility of light refracted ignition of heavy hydrogen [creating miniature thermonuclear detonations like those that occur on our sun]. The purpose of course is to achieve nuclear fusion for commercial use. Currently, Fission is the means by which nuclear power is used. However, the process leaves 'spent' materials that must be stored in huge underground and underwater containment facilities. Something that would no longer be necessary as Fusion [the conversion of one atomic element to another], the means by which stars' shine, and hydrogen bombs explode, would leave no materials behind to dispose of. Currently, the project is in its earliest stages, but computer tests of the design suggest that, with the use of Ion-Beam and gas-based lasers, the possibilities are encouraging. The greatest drawback to the project is the cost, but the potential benefits would be of value to the entire planet.
A Nuclei of Hydrogen and the Big Bang
A report by:
Comm. DL Wey
DCOSR: SFS-SFC
Research conducted into the evolution of the universe has discovered clues into the nature of dark matter. Nuclei discovered, of a hydrogen isotope called deuterium, in the light of distant quasars has shown that its formation occurred in the very first moments of the creation of the universe [in the primordial soup]. Such atomic nuclei, which formed in the first seconds of the Big Bang, have provided additional clues to the events of the early universe. In contrast to the universe we know today, the early universe consisted almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. The production of deuterium [and its ratio to ordinary hydrogen]depends primarily on the total amount of matter produced during the big bang, and its uniformity. Now the expansion of the universe seems to have started somewhere between ten and twenty billion years ago. And in the beginning, its temperature was approximately ten billion degrees [or one thousand times hotter than the core of earth's sun]. At that point, subatomic particles [such as neutrons and protons] interacted freely, but as the temperature cooled, the inter-transmutation stopped. Protons and neutrons paired, creating what was called a deuteron, and these [in turn] came together as helium nuclei. The result was a ratio of approximately one neutron for every seven protons. During the formation of the helium nuclei, some became fused into heavier elements [such as lithium], only a very small fraction of the deuterons remained unpaired. This parceling effected was dependent solely on the ratio of protons and neutrons [categorized as baryons to photons]. The value of this ratio, remains constant as the universe expands. It is symbolized by the Greek letter ETA [ ]. It would not be hard to think that such measurements would be easy, but the universe is not as simple as it once was. Taking measurements in clouds of atomic hydrogen gas renders results that are suspect…due to the fragility of the element itself. In essence, we live in a galaxy that is middle aged and polluted, and deuterium is easily destroyed. Thus, to find clues we must look at the stars from distant parts of the universe. Observations made of a quasar [or quasi-stellar object 0014+813], one of the brightest objects known to exist in the cosmos, had shown this supermassive black hole [located in a very young galaxy at the edge of the observable universe] to contain the first measurable amounts of primordial deuterium. If the measurements hold up, this would give a value of around two baryons per ten billion photons. With this value, the big bang predictions would also be consistent with the amounts of lithium found in the cores of the oldest stars. This would call for a density of photons equal to about one atom for every ten cubic meters of space, which is what we see in the universe today. Though this does not take into account the 'dark matter' that cosmologists have determined must exist. Perhaps it is in a form of leftover particle that is [as yet] not discovered. In any event, the big bang model of the universe provides a framework for working out the astrophysical consequences of associated with new and radical ideas.