There are jokes that never cease about hot fusion being only 20 years
away... not worth repeating except to say, sooner or later there could
be no joke left if we simply rename the process ... and we may have
passed a 20 year marker anyway. Let's relabel it as
neutron-free-fission to distance it from the boondoggles of fusion.
Did you know that former U.S. Energy Secretary and Physicist, Dr Ernest
Moniz joined the Board of Directors of Privately funded Tri Alpha Energy
recently? Few outside of California took notice... unless they have
google alerts.
This could be a big deal, but not LENR. Even without neutrons, the
technology is as far from LENR as from a Tokamak. But Moniz brings
instant credibility, not that they needed it. The company is somewhat
secretive, even with a web site, yet the few visitors allowed are
genuinely impressed, and the company has raised a ton of money. Recent
reports (off-the-record of course) of the final breakthrough leading to
a commercial order in fewer than 20 years are ... shall we say... a bit
glowing.
https://trialphaenergy.com/news/ <http://www.trialphaenergy.com/>
As any reader of vortex would know - the history of the tri-alpha boron
reaction: 11B(p,α)αα which is essentially boron fission instead of
fusion... is almost as old as nuclear physics itself. The reaction was
studied by Lord Rutherford 75 years ago. Then he used proton energies of
200 keV, and a crude accelerator -- whereas resonance is much higher 675
keV.
So close but so far away.
