Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!ukma!rutgers!att!cbnews!mchamp@wpi.wpi.edu
From: mchamp@wpi.wpi.edu (Marc J. Champagne)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Cold fusion on the battlefield...
Message-ID: <5197@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 29 Mar 89 03:21:04 GMT
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From: mchamp@wpi.wpi.edu (Marc J. Champagne)

I think that this cold-fusion breakthrough has a great deal of
   potential for destroyer/frigate type powerplants, and should
   definately be discussed here.  

Because of the long "charging time" for the type of fusion device just
   produced in Utah (10 hours are needed to saturate the palladium rod
   with deuterium before fusion can occur), this technology is
   probably NOT a good candidate for submarine applications.  I can
   just imagine some poor sub-jockey powering down his reactor for a
   covert mission....and then having too creep back out for 10 hours
   on his emergency batteries because the duterium ions flew out of
   the palladium matrix.  And considering the power needs for an
   aircraft carrier or a large cruiser, you're probably just as well
   off with a fusion plant.  We have proven reactor designs out there,
   and with just a few CGNs and CVNs uranium fuel isn't too hard to
   supply. 

But think about the possibilities if you start dropping fusion plants
   into destroyers and frigates.  We have a little over 50 each of the
   Knox and Perry class frigates.  They don't exactly have a fantastic
   range at high speeds.....it's hard to fit a large fuel bunker in
   such a small hull.  That poor range places a pretty heavy demand on
   the Navy's logistics capabilities.  Fuel oil and gasoline are
   pretty plentiful (at least until the next oil crunch), but the
   fleet isn't exactly teaming with AOs and AOEs.  If we can manage to
   drop a fusion plant into one of our future generations of frigates,
   we'll be looking at convoy escorts with 1,000,000+ ranges off of
   one deuterium fueling with horsepower comperable to or better than
   today's power plants.  Both platinum and palladium (the electrode
   materials in the Utah fusion experiment) have melting points higher
   than 1000 C...... that translates into some pretty high pressure
   steam. 

One other poster to this newsgroup mentioned possible application of
   the technology to land combat (man portable fusion packs).
   Although that is completely impossible using this technology (the
   Utah fusion plant will give you a lethal neutron dose in 20 minutes
   within 1 meter at 4 watts if unshielded), there may be some
   eventual application to large aircraft.

Anyway, I'd be curious to hear about other people's opinions on the
   possible military applications of this technology.