At 12:10 PM 9/15/4, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >The latest issue of Popular Mechanics states that helium 3 is easy to fuse. >I don't understand. Is not the columbic potential twice that of deuterium? > >Frank Z
"Easy" as used here is a misnomer, and is only relative at best. The main advantage to helium 3 + deuterium (He3-D) fusion is that it is aneutronic. It promises very clean energy, provided (a) we conquer the hot fusion problem and (b) we can economically mine He3 from the moon or other place. It definitiely is harder to fuse, as you point out. The maximum cross-section occurs at about 200 keV, vs 100 keV for the deuterium-tritium (D-T) reaction, but a significant amount of fusion might be obtained in a device not much more advanced than one that can ignite a D-T reaction. Both the D-T and He3-D reaction produce a lot more energy (17-18 MeV) than the D-D reaction (3-4 MeV), so in that sense it is perhaps also "easier" to get a lot of energy out. In either sense, aneutronic "easier" or yield "easier", obtaining conventional hot fusion using He3 is *not* easy, unless, of course, some vort has a brilliant suggestion ... Regards, Horace Heffner
