Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - [Spaceships] Mass-driver realism

temp · 12-08-2017, 06:12 PM

Theoretically, you can build a clean fusion bomb - you use a "burn" of pure He-3, (current thermonuclear bombs use a Tritium( H-3) Deuterium (H-2) mix), and you use non-fission methods of achieving the compression/heating (the difference between them is theoretical at the energies needed) for fusion to initiate. The He-3 He-3 reaction is He-3 + He-3 → He-4+ 2 protons. This means no radiation, just heat. As such, the device would be completely clean in it's primary reaction, making an Orion launch fine and dandy.

However, the difficulty is getting a He-3 He-3 reaction, which requires much higher effective temperatures than H-2 +H-3. Certainly not achievable at current TL-8...

12-08-2017, 06:12 PM	#30
temp Join Date: Dec 2017	Re: [Spaceships] Mass-driver realism Theoretically, you can build a clean fusion bomb - you use a "burn" of pure He-3, (current thermonuclear bombs use a Tritium( H-3) Deuterium (H-2) mix), and you use non-fission methods of achieving the compression/heating (the difference between them is theoretical at the energies needed) for fusion to initiate. The He-3 He-3 reaction is He-3 + He-3 → He-4+ 2 protons. This means no radiation, just heat. As such, the device would be completely clean in it's primary reaction, making an Orion launch fine and dandy. However, the difficulty is getting a He-3 He-3 reaction, which requires much higher effective temperatures than H-2 +H-3. Certainly not achievable at current TL-8...