Can someone please explain the alleged physics of this? I can’t tell if it’s pseudoscience nonsense or genius.
If the latter, is this exothermic? By fast-burning these isotopes, won’t you release alot of energy too? Or is the laser just that costly that it’s net negative?
CPA produces high-intensity, super-short optical pulses that pack a tremendous amount of power (…)
This capability is what Mourou hopes give CPA a chance of neutralizing nuclear waste, (…)
Yet, it is not efficient :
Rodney C. Ewing of Stanford tells Bloomberg, “I can imagine that the physics might work, but the transmutation of high-level nuclear waste requires a number of challenging steps, such as the separation of individual radionuclides, the fabrication of targets on a large scale, and finally, their irradiation and disposal.”
Can someone please explain the alleged physics of this? I can’t tell if it’s pseudoscience nonsense or genius.
If the latter, is this exothermic? By fast-burning these isotopes, won’t you release alot of energy too? Or is the laser just that costly that it’s net negative?
Somehow doubt that Nobel prize winner is peddling pseudoscience. The research is legit and has been published in Journal of Physics https://www.science.org/content/article/lasers-defuse-nuclear-waste
( published 2019-04-04 )
in theory at least it's okay :
CPA produces high-intensity, super-short optical pulses that pack a tremendous amount of power (…)
This capability is what Mourou hopes give CPA a chance of neutralizing nuclear waste, (…)
Yet, it is not efficient :