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Stuff Possibly Planned for the Future
Bubble Fusion
Step One:Sonoluminescence
Would not be my project supposedly but rather someone at my mom's work. This is a black-listed area of science(due to the related cold fusion media frenzy) and so any work in the field will be highly questionable.
However questionable the actual fusion process is, the underlying theory has been proven: sonoluminescence. The process involves running ultrasonic waves through very pure water(in the sense that it must not have any dissolved gases) with bubble(s) in it. Practically this is done with two ultrasonic transducers and a round boiling flask. The transducers are glued to oppisite sides, and a microphone is put on the bottom of the flask to get signal output. The inputs and outputs should be put to an oscillioscope. It seems that a bubble either can be generated by injecting it into the system(with something like a syringe) or by heating the liquid to produce a bubble of the solvent. When the ultrasonic waves are applied, visible light is emitted from the bubbles, but it also has been reported in other spectrums, such as UV. The bubbles have been shown to have plasma cores and have been proven to be hot enough to cut through steel. Some estimate their temperatures to be as high as millions of degrees Centigrade. They also supposedly have very high pressure from the collapse that causes the light emission.
Step Two:Fusor
The actual final fusion project needs a source of neutrons. My current research says that the easiest way to supply these would be with a fusor. These are a relativly(meaning not hobbyist ubbuildable at least) simple devices that it appears emit protons and neutrons. It seems that the basic idea is to have two spheres, one innner one and one outer one. By applying some 10 or 20 kilo volts of DC electricty, this apparantly generates these atomic particles by causes deterium to di atomically react to form tritium and He-3.
Step Three:Bubble Fusion
People might say isn't it enough that you already have a small fusion reactor? Well no, since all it does is generate neutrons and protons and doesn't do this in an efficient enough manner. What the actual goal of such reactions are are to produce enough energy to be able to create steam to drive turbines and generate electricity. So, that brings us to the last part of the project.
As noted earlier, the bubbles are of extremly high pressure and temperature. This, along with deterium(which I think I am spelling wrong), causes a nuclear fusion reaction, starting with the same ones observed in the fusor. These bubbles are created with a spark gap made of small carbon rods. The carbon and some other things from the air are also thought to be part of the reaction. The actual fluid in the mixture is deterium rich acetone in the most famous experimental setups. It has been shown that the process produces visible amounts of iron, which can be picked up with a magnet. This is signifigant as it is an easy indicator of a nuclear reaction. I'm not a professional scientist, but this is what I am going to try to discover during this process:
1) The possiblity that the other elements were due to extreme experimental contamination. They claimed to use very pure graphite rods, but with such an odd thing as deterium rich acetone, one has to wonder what sort of contamenants could have gotten in there to make it. A similar thing happened one time where a scientist used helium production as evidence his cold fusion reaction was working. Later it was discovered that this had something to do with the glassware he was using.
2) How potentially dangerous could this reaction get? Although it doesn't sound like the mixture could go critical and cause a nuclear blast(although tritium is quite nasty), how high would radiation levels get in the event it would work? I have read that no more than 20kV should be put into a fusor or it will generate dangerous radiation levels.
3) Where did they get their acetone from? Deterium rich acetone is not something you can find at your local hardware store, and I'd be surprised even if you could get it at your local chemical supplier, although it might be if it is common to use it as a tracer, which I would be delighted if this is true. Otherwise I know of two different ways to synthesize acetone, but neither of which easily lends itself to using raw deuterium.
4) Cost is another issue, but as this isn't my experiment I don't think I'll have to worry about funding too much. I don't think I'd be able to even think about doing this on my own as I would not be able to afford the heavy water. I also don't have a round boiling flask, but I think my partner has some, so I don't think that will be an issue at all.
Well, I think thats going to be the only thing in this area for now as the rail gun has started to move beyond planning and has started to move to reality. Wish me luck!