HEPlaR High Efficiency Plasma Recombustion
Fusion Exhaust
I have considered both sides of the argument before responding.
Tim OReilly wrote: âMany of our designs assume that because the
drive is powered by an atomic or fusion powered source that the
exhaust must be radioactive. However I think this assumption is
misplaced.â
Sorry I donât agree.
Both beta and gamma radiation and possibly alpha particles would be
emitted by the exhaust of HEPlaR drives. However, these are very short
term radiation with mostly fairly short ranges. Though problly in game
I wouldnât recommend a fly over of the Grand Chancellorâs house
with your HEPlar driven scout courier for many reasonsâ¦
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Radiation includes:
Alpha particles: are helium nuclei and they travel at great speeds
and interact with matter causing damage particularly to biological
systems.
Beta particles: are energetic electrons that have a highly ionizing
effect. These are produced by plasma.
Gamma radiation: high energy photons. This radiation is produced by
the sun which is composed of hydrogen plasma. I think it is safe to
assume that this radiation is produced by plasma in HEPlaR.
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Tim OReilly wrote: âYet, the current ones do not habitually cause
environmental problems due to radiation.â
Sorry again I couldnât categorically agree, also not relevant
because âthe current onesâ are nuclear fission reactors that use
fissile materials such as Uranium, Plutonium and other highly
radioactive substances that breakdown into other radioactive
substances releasing large amounts of neutrons, alpha particles and
gamma radiation. But try doing a dedicated search for uranium mining
and refining to get an idea of actually how much radiation is released
into the environment as a result of these processes. This is before
you consider the costs of a nuclear meltdown in the environment. The
facts are alarming!
In Traveller we are positing that nuclear fusion, the use of Hydrogen
fusion which is the reaction that powers the sun, making deuterium,
tritium, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, etc. etc. has been made to
work on a commercial scale (a reasonable assumption).
It is for this reason that IMTU starships have at least three types
of drives including HEPlaR, Thruster, and contragrav. Two of these
drives use the hitherto undiscovered graviton, which utilizes the
universal gravitational constant. We may posit that the thrusters and
contra-grav devices of the graviton do not have the radiation effects.
Thus these (safer) drives are used by starships and spaceships
during landing maneuvers. HEPlaR comes into its own in deep space
where it seems there is a consensus that the gravitonâs effect is
lessened at least and radiation is really not an issue.
Starports of the future probably have some kind of condensers that
remove these highly radioactive particles and also have specific
flight paths for the intransigent starship captains that insist on
landing on the planet. Additionally there would also be some sort of
graduated scale for the regulations associated with the above based on
TL, law level and population (ie perceived population risk). These
condensers recombine Helium nuclei with their electron shells using
some sort of terraforming technology (ie large scale). But it is
unlikely that the starships actually recombine ions or collect high
energy photons because this would greatly reduce the efficiency of
these drives.
Thoughts anyone?
Enjoy!
Craige