Researchers have reported neutron detection but these results have not been reproduced and some scientists have attributed this detection to 'noise'. Bubbles are tiny they have very small amount of gas in them so detecting that is not exactly straightforward... I think
for example a in a 1um radius bubble the total mass of gas would be ~ 10^-18kg.
Personally I doubt fusion occurs inside bubbles. Even if we take the highest reported temp 30000K that's way below what's required for fusion.
Also bubble literature is full of fantastic claims—one that comes to mind is assertion that pressures of around 10Gpa can be generated which seems highly improbable because that's likely to induce phase change in the fluid.
However it's quite possible that I'm wrong. Because bubble science keeps on throwing new surprises.
Unfortunately, no- while atoms fusing has a fixed mass to energy conversion... getting them close enough that they'll fuse takes a lot of energy. The three hurdles to effective fusion are: 1) getting more energy from fusion than was spent making it happen 2) extracting the extra energy 3) (this never gets covered) avoid neutron flux turning the whole thing into radioactive scrap before it can pay for itself and storage.
National ignition facility (NIF) recently got exited about more energy out than they put in. They don't have a plan for #2 or #3- but as a research facility focusing on #1 thats OK.
Numerous tokamak designs try to handle #1 and #2, but handle #3 by putting rails into the reactor for robots to replace and repair things.
I'm very pessimistic about #3- nothing is immune to neutron damage from fusion, it's just engineering it to fail in a way thats useful. And, once the public accepts the problem, produces less nuclear waste than fission.
akshatjiwan|4 months ago
for example a in a 1um radius bubble the total mass of gas would be ~ 10^-18kg.
Personally I doubt fusion occurs inside bubbles. Even if we take the highest reported temp 30000K that's way below what's required for fusion.
Also bubble literature is full of fantastic claims—one that comes to mind is assertion that pressures of around 10Gpa can be generated which seems highly improbable because that's likely to induce phase change in the fluid.
However it's quite possible that I'm wrong. Because bubble science keeps on throwing new surprises.
sodaclean|4 months ago
> However it's quite possible that I'm wrong. Because bubble science keeps on throwing new surprises.
Ultimately that's my assertion. No need for exaggerated/optimistic claims when something interesting turns up about it on a regular basis.
Ekaros|4 months ago
sodaclean|4 months ago
National ignition facility (NIF) recently got exited about more energy out than they put in. They don't have a plan for #2 or #3- but as a research facility focusing on #1 thats OK.
Numerous tokamak designs try to handle #1 and #2, but handle #3 by putting rails into the reactor for robots to replace and repair things.
I'm very pessimistic about #3- nothing is immune to neutron damage from fusion, it's just engineering it to fail in a way thats useful. And, once the public accepts the problem, produces less nuclear waste than fission.