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New nuclear reactor for space applications?
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Posted by Bob Lancaster (Defensorora@worldnet.att.net) at 01:49 GMT on 15 Apr 2004

The new issue of Popular Mechanics has an article on atomic power for aircraft. The main point of the story is some new process called a triggered isomer reaction/quantum nucleonic reactor that's neither fission nor fusion. In the article, it describes how a hafnium isotope is hit with a small amount of x-rays to release more energy in gamma rays; one estimate was that the gamma output was 60 times the amount of energy as the x-ray input. I assume the hafnium isotope has to be artificially created first to store this energy; how much of an improvement might it be in energy density and efficiency?

Apparently this was discovered about 5 years ago at UT Dallas.

Anyone have any more info on it? How useful would this type of reactor be for a lunar base?

Bob

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