Fusion reactor

From FenWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Our ancestors harnessed the power of a sun, and so again shall we

—Commissioner Pravin Lal, Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri

Fusion reactor

Deuterium-Tritium fusion

Fusion reactors are on of the common Fenspace energy production technologies that seems to be similar than experiments being done for decades by scientists on Earth. Most of them run nuclear reactions well known to mundane physics, but Handwavium allowed the Fen to skip most of the problems associated with the necessary high temperature, pressure and the confinement of the fusion reaction.

While many fusion reactors in Fenspace use magnetic confinement, there is quite a few other technologies used for containing the reaction. Examples are Inertial confinement, electrostatic confinement and several forcefield confined reactors. Most reactors use the high temperature of the fusion gas or the created protons to output useful energy.

Fenspace fusion reactors run on diverse nuclear reactions, many of them dependent on the kind of fuel the Fen had available when waving the reactor:

  • D-T Fusion (Deuterium-Tritium):
    Easy to handle fusion reaction because of the low ignition temperature compared to other reactions. Deuterium is easily available from gas giants, but Tritium is radioactive and must be created from other elements.
  • H-B Fusion (Hydrogen-Boron):
    The easiest to do fusion reaction which does not produce neutron radiation. It needs much higher temperatures than many other used fusion reactions and is less efficient in power production
  • He3-D Fusion (Helium 3-Deuterium):
    Theoretically another neutron free fusion reaction, but most reactors will have D-D reactions happening too, which produce a lot of neutrons.
  • He3-He3 Fusion (Helium 3):
    Another reaction without neutron radiation, but Helium-3 must be mined from gas giants, which make it uncommon in the early years of Fenspace.

JAXA Fusion Reactor

In 2015, JAXA revealed an unwaved fusion reactor design based on the Whole Fenspace Catalog. The He3-He3 Fusion (Helium 3) consuming reactor was part of their joint venture that created the Thor Heyerdahl together with ESA. The rare fuel of the reactor prevented its instant commercial application on Earth.

Fusion Torches

A Fusion Torch is a space ship drive that use its high temperature plasma directly as propellant instead of using the electrical output of a fusion reactor to run a spaceship engine. Fusion Torches are so called because their exhaust plume is incredibly hot, and anything caught in it will likely suffer extreme damage from the heat[1]. NASA experts still insist on the fact that Fenspace waved fusion torches are still not putting out enough hot gas to explain their incredible acceleration.

Fusion torch acceleration drives are a kind of constant boost drive, and are ideal for Brachistochrone type transfers.

Trivia

  • There is no easy way to run a fusion reactor on pure hydrogen, because this will lead to a large group of different fusion reactions happening. Still, some Fen reactors use 'impossible' fusion reactions like direct conversion of Hydrogen into Helium-4, but these reactors are most times more quirked than others.

Notes

  1. See also 'the Kzinti Lesson'.