
A helium-resistant material could finally usher in the age of nuclear fusion - phr4ts
http://www.sciencealert.com/new-composite-material-reduces-helium-damage-fusion-reactors
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dnautics
Perhaps more specifically, alpha radiation resistant. Alpha radiation is
helium nuclei.

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trentlott
Right. Chemically, most things are helium-resistant. It's a noble element.

It's apparently just that someone came up with a way to allow the gas that
forms inside the metal to escape by allowing nanocomposite phases to link up
as He is generated.

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Iv
Oh, your sentence explained to me something I had never understood. Alpha
radiation is harmful because the helium nucleus acquires an electronic,
becomes helium that tries to escape? I always thought it was just the impact
of the particle that caused damage but now I understand better, thanks!

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marcosdumay
AFAIK, alpha radiation is not a big problem at all. But if it's that bad, you
can put a layer of paper sheets (or metal film, or whatever) on the inside of
the reactor to absorb it.

Again AFAIK, all the issues are caused by neutron radiation.

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iaw
My understanding aligns with yours. These are probably highly energetic Alpha
particles that embed in metals but I always thought they were of little
concern compared to the problems of decay due to neutron bombardment.

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caio1982
I find it very hard to believe in anything published originally by Futurism...
can someone with more background on the topic comment if it's trustworthy
stuff?

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tigershark
No idea about futurism, but someone that speaking about nuclear fusion writes
something like this is not worth of any consideration:

Not only does the fusion process expose reactors to _extreme pressure_ and
temperatures

Seriously? Extreme pressures in a tokamak? What am I missing?

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mirimir
Yes, that surprised me too. Are there any fusion designs without high vacuum?

But on the other hand, magnetic stresses in full-scale systems would be huge,
right? And one could consider that to be pressure. In that it reflects
confinement of the plasma. Or it could be an incoherent edit.

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tempestn
Technically a high vacuum is an extreme pressure, just a negative extreme.

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mirimir
Sure, but isn't 1 atmosphere pretty small?

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QAPereo
Even if true, and feasible, this does noting for spalling from fast neutrons,
and half a dozen major bottlenecks with no daylight in sight. Helium
impregnation is hardly the major hurdle, at least, not compared to atomic
spalling, the breeder blanket, diverter design, magnetic containment, etc...

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ZenoArrow
Sounds like you're focusing on the tokamak approach to nuclear fusion. There
are fusion approaches that avoid some of those hurdles.

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QAPereo
Some, but not all, especially not the issue of fast neutrons turning whatever
your make your reactor out of, into crumbly crap. Now, I know that some people
are placing bets on forms of aneutronic fusion, but realistic forms still
produce enough neutrons to ruin metal, that's just not their primary means of
transmitting energy. Worse, they require temperatures/pressures far in excess
of what's realistic any time soon, except possibly for very brief bursts in
the lab.

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ZenoArrow
> "I know that some people are placing bets on forms of aneutronic fusion, but
> realistic forms still produce enough neutrons to ruin metal"

What makes aneutronic fusion unrealistic?

[https://lppfusion.com/lppfusion-publishes-world-record-
fusio...](https://lppfusion.com/lppfusion-publishes-world-record-fusion-
results-leading-peer-reviewed-journal-physics-plasmas/)

"Hydrogen-boron fuel, also called pB11, is an ideal fuel, producing no
neutrons, and no radioactive waste. Its energy can be converted directly into
electricity, potentially greatly reducing energy costs below that from any
existing source. Both hydrogen and boron are abundantly available. But the
fuel needs extremely high ion energy—temperature—to burn. The new results
demonstrate that FF-1 has achieved the energies needed to burn pB11 fuel."

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QAPereo
_But the fuel needs extremely high ion energy—temperature—to burn._

That’s the killer caveat.

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ZenoArrow
The line that follows indicates why this may no longer be a problem (for the
FF-1 at least):

"The new results demonstrate that FF-1 has achieved the energies needed to
burn pB11 fuel."

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QAPereo
_Worse, they require temperatures /pressures far in excess of what's realistic
any time soon, except possibly for very brief bursts in the lab._

~~~
ZenoArrow
Are you familiar with the dense plasma focus approach to fusion (which is what
the device I linked to is using)? It's built around brief bursts of plasma.
Maintenance of a stable plasma is not required.

