From: Axil Axil
… The thorium blanket would shield and absorb the muons produced by the LENR reaction and no radioactive byproducts or fissile material would result. As I have posted several times recently in light of Holmlid’s claims – it seems possible to combine fission and LENR in a subcritical arrangement. The challenge is to supply UDH as if it was neutron flux. The neutron substitute would be UDH, and not muons per se although both would be important in the scheme, Thorium as a fuel would be possible in this regard, but as of today it is too costly and too “light” to compete with U. Muons tend to be absorbed best by extremely dense metals like Uranium. It should be noted that thorium is far less dense than Uranium and because of low demand, it is also an order of magnitude more expensive. Proponents say the cost will drop with demand, but there is no proof of that and the lower density cannot be changed. Density: U – 18.950 gm/cc Th – 11.720 gm/cc Thorium is a heavy metal relatively speaking – in fact it is denser than lead - but Uranium is a whopping 62% denser than thorium - and would be better as a subcritical fuel for a hybrid reactor - even if the cost were the same. There is minimal information online about muon stopping power, but the chart here that shows a straight line dependence on Z while explaining that it should not be straight. http://scipp.ucsc.edu/outreach/internships/2007/references/Muon%20Absorption.pdf
