Download link for presentation pdf
Key New Energy Times issue discussing the neutron generating experiment
Note: having lithium in the mix, as Suhas Ralkar does, should absorb some Neutrons breeding Tritium and then the protons flying around make Helium.
It is the Tritium everyone gets upset about.
In ITER, the neutrons are 14 MeV, requiring 0.5m - 1m of lithium, --- how thick does the lithium need to be for 255KeV?
Moderator Blanket
It seems useful to have a moderator blanket of graphite or beryllium oxide for the purpose of slowing down the fast neutrons before they undergo the Li6(n,t)He4 reaction. The reaction cross section follows a l/v law below the resonance at 255 kev, and the thermal neutron cross section is more than 103 times as large as for the energy region where the neutrons would react in a pure lithium blanket.
If a moderator blanket is lined with lithium both inside and outside, no thermal neutrons can escape. The mean free path for absorption of thermal neutrons is 0.3 cm in natural lithium and 0.023 cm in pure Li6. Depending on the albedo of the moderator blanket, the inner lining will receive more thermal neutrons than the outer one.