Will cold plasma help create fusion energy?

[Arugela]

I know there are fusion reactors using plasma. I wasn't sure if the fusion was generating it or if it was being generated to aid the process. Either way, is cold fusion usable in the process. Either to aid in it or to keep the parts alive longer by cooling off the plasma to save some level of maintenance and possibly efficiency overall? I thought something indicated that it could be useful in the process. Maybe it can rip it back apart afterwords?! 8)

 

I saw a video on a particular reactor, but I can't find it now.

Edited May 21, 2020 by Arugela

[Spacescifi]

36 minutes ago, Arugela said:

I know there are fusion reactors using plasma. I wasn't sure if the fusion was generating it or if it was being generated to aid the process. Either way, is cold fusion usable in the process. Either to aid in it or to keep the parts alive longer by cooling off the plasma to save some level of maintenance and possibly efficiency overall? I thought something indicated that it could be useful in the process. Maybe it can rip it back apart afterwords?! 8)

 

I saw a video on a particular reactor, but I can't find it now.

 

My instincts tell me no... but the science is still there to at least try stuff I have not thought of.

Anyways... fusion tries to replicate what the sun does. Which involves making plasma VERY hot.

Often hotter than the sun (yes we can do that), since we do that since it compensates for not having the mass the sun does to cause fusion.

So that is why I think the way I do.

[Bill Phil]

Fusion is the process of bringing atomic nuclei together. However, atomic nuclei have positive charges, and thus to get any two nuclei close enough to induce fusion a certain energy threshold must be met. Generally this threshold is quite large but after passing it the nuclear forces overcome the electric forces and fusion occurs. There are a variety of methods to reach this threshold. In magnetic confinement the goal is to create a high temperature plasma. This is necessary to get the nuclei past the energy threshold so fusion can occur. High temperatures correspond to high average velocities, and thus high average energies. Hopefully fusion occurs. Cold plasma is simply not going to do it on the desired scale. Sure some random events may happen, but not in the numbers needed for energy production. The idea is that the fusion reactions could release enough energy to maintain the high temperatures in at least some portion of the plasma. But plasma likes to induce its own magnetic field, and the whole thing falls apart. It may be possible, but it'll be tough.

Personally I think we should be looking into more advanced fission reactors more-so than fusion (but fusion is certainly worth developing). Accelerator driven reactors could be deployed to burn off nuclear waste and get energy from it; turning the waste into easier to handle elements and isotopes. If such a technology proves effective it could be worthwhile in general since it can be kept sub-critical, runaway reactions with such a reactor are simply impossible. 

[YNM]

Plasma is simply a state of matter, as a function of their energy and density. Depending on what the kind of matter is in the plasma, their overall thermal properties may differ, but the individual particle's specific properties are more or less the same. For this reason, normally "cold" plasma is merely utilizing the lightest matter normally encountered - electrons - and as such, they have low energy density and doesn't really bother with the much heavier atomic nucleus. Fluorescent lamps and CRT tubes are technically utilizing electron plasma in order to generate light.

Problem is, fusion specifically has to do with the much heavier atomic nucleus - at least 1000 times heavier than electrons - which means that, whether you like it or not, the energy density required would almost always has to be high enough for it to happen in a meaningful rate, and that energy is manifested in heat.

Edited May 22, 2020 by YNM

[Guest]

There are fusion systems in use right now, as neutron generators. Beats having to stock huge paraffin cubes with neutron-emitting radioactive material inside. Those don't generate energy, just neutrons, and I don't think they run particularly hot. They are power hogs, though.