Lithium 6 Fusion reactor
Copywrite 2004,2005 by William Arden. Redistribution is allowed
that this notice is included.
Concept released into public domain on 11/30/2004
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The current research into fusion reactors overlooks several cost
factors. I believe that it would actually be less costly to make a
reactor that fuses lithium-6 and hydrogen. For starters the reactor can
be made out of ordinary steel since fusing lithium and hydrogen does
not produce neutrons. This would also make the new reactor last a
very long time.
The concept is to make a very large tokamak or
other style ring reactor.
- Steel is much less expensive than the exotic materials needed to
handle neutron bombardment.
- The temperatures involved in relation to the materials melting
point means that the difference between steel and the best ceramic is
very small. This means that it's better to keep the steel polished and
water cooled and rely on the vacuum to insulate it.
- Does not produce radioactive byproducts.
- Reactor, with maintenance, would last for over 100 years.
- Can be made out of prefab steel sections.
- High output power around 100,000 megawatts.
- Size. I estimate 200 feet high and 2000 feet wide
- Cost. Somewhere around 5 to 10 Billion US$ for a "ring
reactor" or up to 30 Billion US$ for tokamak, but this price is just an
estimate and would likely come down with time and technology
- Cost of the magnetic is a major factor especially since higher
plasma temperatures are needed for lithium-6 and hydrogen.