Cold Fusion... Take Two

In a move reminiscent of the old Cold Fusion claims in Russia and the US 30 or so years ago, a Canadian company claims to be able to make fusion a viable energy source in the next 4-5 years. If you do look at the science behind their method, it does seem promising, but so have many other methods of creating and harnessing fusion, that have up to now, failed.

The Canadian based company, General Fusion, has come up with a method that seems very promising. Now to try to explain how this is to work.

The company will build a "reactor" or better described as a vessel. Within the vessel will be a liquefied lead-lithium mixture. The liquid metal will be spun quickly in order to form a void in the center where plasma will be allowed to exist. Once the plasma has been formed in the void, many pneumatic rams around the liquid will fire at the same time creating a pressure wave traveling into the center of the metal. As the pressure wave propagates, it will magnify greatly until it reaches the plasma void at the center. Once it reaches that point the wave will quickly compress the plasma and generating a quick burst of fusion. That extremely fast fusion reaction will in turn heat the metal and power a steam turbine. The by-products will be able to be collected and used in the process.

The beauty of this process is that the liquid metal will absorb a majority of the neutrons released in the process and this will virtually eliminate radioactive output seen in other fusion models. Also, none of the by-products are harmful, most being reused in the fusion process.

Truly amazing, assuming it all works as planned. Good luck General Fusion, I'd love to see this work.