Robert Bussard, an American physicist working primarily in nuclear fusion energy research has developed an idea to end the energy crisis by means of nuclear energy in a way that has never been done before.
He also developed an idea to power space vehicles with hydrogen atoms collected from the near-vacuum of space and feeding them into a fusion reactor.
Bussard is now working on a system that can end global energy crisis, by using a safe source for nuclear energy.
His latest research makes use of boron-11.
Bussard’s reactor is made of six shiny metal rings that are joined to form a cube. Each ring about a yard in diameter contains copper wires wound into an electromagnet.
The reactor operates inside a vacuum chamber and when energized the cube of the electromagnets creates a magnetic sphere into which electrons are injected. The magnetic field squeezes the electrons into a dense ball at the reactor’s core, creating a highly negatively charged area.
The reaction starts with the injection of boron-11 nuclei and protons into the cube. Since they are having a positive charge they are deflected towards the centre of the core and on towards the opposite side of the reactor. But the negative charge of the electron ball pulls then back to the center. The process is repeated many times till the nuclei fuse.
On fusion a highly energetic carbon-12 splits into a helium nucleus and beryllium nucleus. The beryllium then splits into two more helium nuclei.
The result is three helium nuclei each of which is having almost three million electron volts of energy.
Here the energy forces the electrons to flow and hence electricity is generated.
Bussard is currently looking for investors to make his idea real.
May be one day the energy crisis is controlled if inventions like this are proved to be worthy.
Via: wired
