These neutrons come primarily from the reaction
11B + α → 14N + n + 157 keV
The reaction itself produces only 157 keV, but the neutron will carry a large fraction of the alpha energy, which will be close to Efusion/3 = 2.9 MeV. Another significant source of neutrons is the reaction
11B + p → 11C + n − 2.8 MeV.
These neutrons are less energetic, with an energy comparable to the fuel temperature. In addition, 11C itself is radioactive, but quickly decays to 11B with a half life of only 20 minutes.
Since these reactions involve the reactants and products of the primary fusion reaction, it would be difficult to further lower the neutron production by a significant fraction. A clever magnetic confinement scheme could in principle suppress the first reaction by extracting the alphas as soon as they are created, but then their energy would not be available to keep the plasma hot. The second reaction could in principle be suppressed relative to the desired fusion by removing the high energy tail of the ion distribution, but this would probably be prohibited by the power required to prevent the distribution from thermalizing.
In addition to neutrons, large quantities of hard X-rays would be produced by bremsstrahlung, and 4, 12, and 16 MeV gamma rays will be produced by the fusion reaction
11B + p → 12C + γ + 16.0 MeV
with a branching probability relative to the primary fusion reaction of about 10^-4.
The hydrogen must be isotopically pure and the influx of impurities into the plasma must be controlled to prevent neutron-producing side reactions such as:
11B + d → 12C + n + 13.7 MeV
d + d → 3He + n + 3.27 MeV
The shielding design reduces the occupational dose of both neutron and gamma radiation to operators to a negligible level. The primary components would be water to moderate the fast neutrons, boron to absorb the moderated neutrons and metal to absorb X-rays. The total thickness is estimated to be about one meter, mostly water"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneutronic_fusion#Boron
So, "aneutronic fusion" is a misnomer.
Message Thread
- DFM December 17, 2020, 5:53 am
- DFM December 17, 2020, 5:55 am
« Back to index