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The Nuclear Reaction Between Lithium and Bismuth Is a Viable Alternative to Fusion. Discover How This New Technique Could Revolutionize Energy Production!
In the last five years, advances in the field of nuclear fusion have occurred at an accelerated pace. The arrival of commercial fusion energy requires the physicists and engineers involved in its development to overcome various significant challenges. In other articles, we explored these challenges, but this time, we are interested in focusing on one of the reasons why it is so difficult to operate a power plant equipped with a nuclear fusion reactor.
The conditions we need to recreate on Earth for the fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei, which are the two isotopes of hydrogen participating in the reaction, to occur spontaneously are extraordinarily demanding. This reaction occurs naturally in stars, even among much heavier chemical elements, but for them, it is much easier. The vast amount of matter they aggregate causes gravitational contraction to work in their favor when maximizing the number of pairs of nuclei that will fuse.
On Earth, we don’t have the immense pressure of stars, so to stimulate the natural fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei, the plasma containing them needs to reach a temperature of at least 150 million degrees Celsius. Logically, sustaining these conditions for a long period is very difficult, especially when it is essential to deal with the turbulence occurring at the plasma edges or energy loss, among other challenges. Fortunately, there is a nuclear reaction that presents itself as a very interesting alternative to nuclear fusion. And it is going to have a significant impact.
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The Transfer of a Single Neutron Has Huge Potential
A research team composed of scientists from Brazilian, Chinese, American, and Italian universities conducted a very promising experiment using a nuclear reaction that can produce energy. What makes it attractive at first glance is that the conditions required to produce it are much less demanding than those required for nuclear fusion, which by itself represents a significant advantage. In any case, this is a very different reaction from the one mentioned in the first paragraphs of this article.
The reaction involving the transfer of a single neutron between lithium-6 and bismuth-209 nuclei produces a release of energy comparable to that of a complete fusion reaction
Physicists have been trying for many decades to accurately understand the mechanisms involved in neutron transfer between weakly bound nuclei. This is precisely the starting point of this experiment. The aforementioned researchers designed an experiment involving a lithium-6 nucleus and a bismuth-209 nucleus. They recreated the proper conditions for the first isotope, lithium, to collide with the much heavier bismuth isotope, resulting in the transfer of a neutron from the lithium-6 nucleus to the bismuth-209 nucleus.
In this experiment, the physicists used the GALILEO gamma-ray detector and the Si 4π EUCLIDES laser detector, both installed at the Legnaro National Laboratory in Padua (Italy), to assess the gamma-ray emission triggered by this nuclear reaction, as well as to identify the production of charged particles. What they discovered is fascinating: the reaction involving the transfer of a single neutron between lithium-6 and bismuth-209 nuclei produces a release of energy comparable to that of a complete fusion reaction. Nothing less.
This statement from the experiment leaders clearly describes why this discovery is important: “The neutron transfer process produces a result comparable to that of a complete fusion reaction […] The result we obtained indicates that the transfer of a neutron plays a dominant role at lower energies, even surpassing the results of fusion reactions.”
It is still very early to state that this experiment will solidify as a new way of generating energy, but there is no doubt that it is an extraordinarily promising starting point. Who knows, maybe in a few years this technology will prove commercially viable. There are details of the experiment that we still do not know, so we will continue to inform as soon as we have more information.
Image | Zhang, Gaolong
More Information | Springer Link
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