*I don't wanna come across as the big grumpy naysayer here, but this Canadian
gizmo that hits molten lead with piston hammers is the weirdest atomic power
scheme I've ever heard of. Cute, too!
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/23102/
(...)
"The prototype reactor will be composed of a metal sphere about three meters in diameter containing a liquid mixture of lithium and lead. The liquid is spun to create a vortex inside the sphere that forms a vertical cavity in the middle. At this point, two donut-shaped plasma rings held together by self-generated magnetic fields, called spheromaks, are injected into the cavity from the top and bottom of the sphere and come together to create a target in the center. "Think about it as blowing smoke rings at each other," says Doug Richardson, chief executive of General Fusion. (((You might wanna blow some of that smoke over here by my VC startup Kool-Aid.)))
"On the outside of the metal sphere are 220 pneumatically controlled pistons, each programmed to simultaneously ram the surface of the sphere at 100 meters a second. The force of the pistons sends an acoustic wave through the lead-lithium mixture, and that accelerates into a shock wave as it reaches the plasma, which is made of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium.
"If everything works as planned, the plasma will compress instantly and the isotopes will fuse into helium, releasing a burst of energy-packed neutrons that are captured by the lead-lithium liquid. The rapid heat buildup in the liquid will be extracted through a heat exchanger, with half used to create steam that spins a turbine for power generation, and the rest used to recharge the pistons for the next "shot."
"The ultimate goal is to inject a new plasma target and fire the pistons every second, creating pulses of fusion reactions as part of a self-sustaining process."
((((RATATATATAATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATAT!! "What the heck is THAT?" "Aw, that's just my piston-powered molten lead Canadian fusion reactor.")))
