Talk:Antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion

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I just changed the invented date to "before" 1992 instead of "in" 1992, because I was an intern at JPL in 1991 studying the concept. I started in January of that year, and the concept was already being worked on, so it was presumably invented sometime in 1990 or earlier. I don't have any cites other than the reference number of the internal JPL document I wrote. It is JPL internal document #D-8672, published in July 1991. Tom 04:18, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

This sounds a lot like the engines from Star Trek. Bioform 1234 16:42, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Confirmation

Although the reaction energy of a fusion reaction is about 1/10th that of a fission reaction, the Li-D fuel used in these reactions is much lighter.

Do I misunderstand the concept of "reaction energy", or is it possible that fission and fusion are swapped here. Please note that I'm no physicist, so this is merely a request for confirmation.--Malcohol 12:28, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

The energy per reaction for a fusion reaction is a mere 5-20 MeV, while a fission reaction produces over 180 MeV per reaction. However, uranium used in fission masses at 235 AMUs per nucleus, while the fusion fuel is a mere 2 or 3 AMUs, making fusion considerably more efficient. The fuel is also cheaper and does not need enrichment.Dark Shikari 17:57, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The last paragraph

very unclear. Midgley 23:31, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Silly Question About Thorium Fission

I think that Thorium is a naturally fissile material, but I am unaware of whether or not fission based bombs can be made out of it. Can fission based bombs be made from Thorium at all (Certainly, it can be used in nuclear fuel cycles). With antimatter seeding (catalyzation, or whatever) could thorium be made to explode if seeded in a particular way (certainly this should be possible for a supercritical nuclear mass - but what about a subcritical one?). --Nukemason4

[edit] Fusion / Fission detailed description

It seems that is may be useful to have a more detailed description of the specific reactions involved in antimatter fission and fusion processes, if this information is available anywhere. I will look for some, if I get around to it. --Tsuji 04:31, 20 May 2007 (UTC)