Cool step on the way to solving energy problem...

[pax]

http://www.physorg.com/news10806.html

 

[KimB]

It doesn't really purport to solve any energy problems, though. This technique will require more energy to be put into the system than can get obtained from it.

 

[DudeMiester]

But if you did it on a large enough scale, couldn't you harness the extra energy produced by the fusion to power the crystals? Then again, maybe that scale is too large, or it's just not efficent enough.

 

[Rolf N]

But if you did it on a large enough scale, couldn't you harness the extra energy produced by the fusion to power the crystals? Then again, maybe that scale is too large, or it's just not efficent enough.

That energy already is "harnessed". It accelerates the neutrons away at high speed, which is the intended function of the device.

You don't need high speed neutrons if you're planning the "production" of electrical or thermal energy.

“Nuclear fusion has been explored as a potential source of power, but we are not looking at this as an energy source right now,”

But anyway, I apparently must have slept for a few years if they're now talking about cold fusion like it was the most natural of things.

 

[KimB]

You don't need high speed neutrons if you're planning the "production" of electrical or thermal energy.

Nor do you want them: neutrons interact fairly weakly, so it's not easy to get the energy to do something useful for the generation of power.