A team of researchers at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has reported
the observation of phenomena that could point to the possibility of
nuclear fusion using a novel technique for plasma confinement. The approach,
called "bubble fusion," is reported in the March 8 issue of
Science magazine.
Attempts to confirm these results by looking for the
telltale neutron signature of the deuterium fusion reaction have yielded
mixed results. Additional experiments are needed to verify neutron emission.
The research team reported that ultrasonic waves were
used to implode small cavitation bubbles of deuterated-acetone vapor.
The team further reported that, during bubble implosion, evidence pointing
to nuclear emissions and sonoluminescence light flashes was observed,
as well as evidence of tritium which could suggest the fusion of deuterium
atoms in the highly compressed bubbles.
"It’s hard to know at this point what the ultimate
importance of this discovery will be. However at this time, it looks
promising," said Professor Richard T. Lahey Jr., the Edward E.
Hood Professor of Engineering at Rensselaer, one of the authors of the
published research.
The cavitation experiments were conducted at ORNL by
Rusi Taleyarkhan, Colin West, and Jae Seon-Cho. Lahey and Robert Nigmatulin,
a visiting scholar at Rensselaer and a member of the Russian Academy
of Sciences, performed the theoretical analysis of the bubble dynamics
and the shock-induced pressures, temperatures, and densities in the
imploding bubbles. Robert Block, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering
at Rensselaer, helped to set up and calibrate a neutron and gamma detection
system.
