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04/28/2005: :: Technologica

Nuclear Fusion at Room Temperature
from USA Today

A handheld device can generate tiny nuclear-fusion reactions at room temperatures, UCLA researchers reported Thursday.

This development, which scientists heralded as "amazing," has no practical application at the moment but lots of potential.

Not strong enough to produce either power or explosions, the new gadget produces at most about 800 neutrons each second, a puny amount. But the device may one day become a cheaper and more precise way to screen airport baggage or to propel small spacecraft, say the device's creators.

To pull off the fusion feat, the team relied on a pyro-electric crystal, so named because it becomes electrically charged when heated.

After freezing the crystal, the team heated it to 22 degrees in a chamber filled with deuterium gas. Deuterium is a "heavy" form of hydrogen that is more amenable to fusion reactions. Battered by the crystal's strong electric field, deuterium atoms zipped across the chamber into a solid deuterium target, fusing with atoms to produce helium and neutrons.

"What we're seeing is a very creative idea that produced amazing results," says Ben Stein of the American Institute of Physics. "It creates about a trillionth of the energy needed to heat a cup of coffee. But the fact that a fusion device operates at room temperatures is amazing."

"Our hope is that when scientists realize fusion can be scaled down and self-contained, that it generates a lot of new ideas," Putterman says. For now, the researchers are working to scale up the device to produce 1,000 times more neutrons. The Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funds the research.