I have been tracking this tech from early days. It will be the true road forward for fusion energy production. It is a slow process as tech development tends to be.
We do not have a deal killer. A decade in.
This system will power the gravity ships able to leap to nearby stars. And power all earth as well when our population passes 100,000,000,000.
Fusion Fuels Debated at Munich Conference
https://www.lppfusion.com/fusion-fuels-debated-at-munich-conference/
At the World Fusion Energy Congress in Munich, Germany, October 19-20, the key point debated in many presentations was: “Which fusion fuel was best?” In his keynote presentation, LPPFusion’s President and Chief Scientist Eric Lerner gave the clear answer: “Hydrogen-Boron Fusion as the Fastest Route to the Fusion Economy.” Other presentations showed new details on the severe obstacles in the way of the two other fusion fuels—deuterium-tritium (DT) and deuterium-helium 3(D-He3).
Lerner pointed out in his presentation that hydrogen-boron was the only fusion fuel that was abundant on Earth. Tritium, with a half-life of 24 years, is not found in nature and has to be bred in lithium blankets and separated in huge, expensive facilities (Fig.1). The problems are even worse than expense, another presenter, David Warden, CEO of Black Moon Energy Corporation, pointed out. The breeding ratio, the number of new tritium nuclei produced for each one consumed, is perilously low in the latest theoretical studies. (Tritium breeding has not been demonstrated in an experimental device.) It appears that while a neutron from a DT reaction can produce two neutrons in a reaction with beryllium, inevitable losses cut the number of tritium nuclei produced by neutrons in subsequent reactions with lithium to only 1.1. Since at least a “breeding ratio” of 1.04 is needed to sustain a DT reactor, the maximum attainable ratio is really close to the minimum needed. Other presenters pointed out that new work indicated that this minimum may be out of reach, as some of the tritium diffuses into the steel structures of the reactor before it can be harvested. So, a DT fuel cycle may not be feasible even if a DT reactor can achieve net energy (something that is still far off)
.
Fig. 1 Tritium must be bred in a beryllium and lithium blanket in a two-step reaction (top), while separation of the tritium from the lithium requires huge and expensive facilities, like the one at ITER in France (bottom)
Dr. Warden was advocating He3 mined on the moon as an alternative to DT. But in the spirited but cordial Q and A that followed, Lerner asked what the concentration of He3 in the lunar surface to be mined was. Warden’s answer was “20 parts per billion.” In the panel discussion on October 20th, Lerner pointed out that the extreme dilution of the fuel meant that to supply the He3 needed to replace oil and gas, hundreds of billions of tons of lunar ore would have to be mined each year, far more than the total 20 billion tons of ore mined on Earth each year for all purposes. The energy density of the lunar ore per unit mass would in fact be less than half that of coal mined on Earth. While Warden countered that the lunar mining his company envisioned would be highly automated (as is coal strip mining on Earth), the idea that mining on the Moon could be much cheaper than that on Earth was greeted with much skepticism. In contrast, about 200,000 tons of boron ore on Earth will be needed for pB11 to entirely replace fossil fuels, which is about 2% of the amount currently mined.
“Other presenters showed that breeding He3 in pure deuterium fusion generators was not feasible either,” Lerner recounts. “It seemed to me that the conclusion that could be drawn from the discussion was that only pB11 is a feasible route to commercial fusion.”
While the Congress was a fairly small gathering of dozens of researchers and policymakers, Lerner’s video presentation is attracting lots of interest on YouTube, with nearly 20,000 views in the first five days. This is on track to be LPPFusion’s most-viewed video on fusion energy in many years. The Q and A session and panel discussion are also available on our YouTube channel.
<iframe width="919" height="517" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PDcDUILIWBI" title="Can Hydrogen-Boron Fusion Make Energy 10x Cheaper?" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
