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helium nuclei

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hi i was wondering is it possible to produce helium from reactions in a particle accelerator

Deuterium colliding with Deuterium will create Helium-4.

 

Helium-3 can be created from spontaneous decay of Tritium.

 

T+ -> He-3 + e- + Ve

 

Two different ways for creating different Helium isotopes.

 

Bombarding Deuterium fluid by highly accelerated Deuterium nucleus.

 

or

 

Bombarding Deuterium fluid by neutrons, producing Tritium, and then waiting for spontaneous decay of it to He-3.

 

ps. Like mathematic said- it has no sense. Maybe just to prove theory. It would be the most expensive Helium in the world.

Edited by Sensei

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what makes it so expensive and i want to be able to produce my own helium

Edited by ant17

1 m^3 of Helium costs 60 usd here.

Even Deuterium is more expensive.

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here it costs 80aud for 14 cu feet is there anyone else know of a way of making helium

 

how much helium could be generated by a particle accelerator

Edited by ant17

If you had a beam current of a microamp (which would be pretty good going, it would produce, under ideal conditions, about 10 billion atoms per second.
that's something like a million million seconds per litre.

That's something like 31 years.

 

It would be cheaper and more efficient (though still impractical) to get a big closed container and fill it with uranium ore and catch the helium that comes out of that.

1 Liter of Helium has mass 0.1786 g.

1 Helium-4 particle has mass = 4.0026/6.022141e+23 = ~6.646e-24 g

0.1786 g/L / 6.6465e-24 g = 2.687e+22 atoms in liter.

 

2.687e+22 / 10e+9 = 2.687e+12 seconds each one producing 10 billion atoms

 

/ 86400 = 3.11e+7 days

/ 365.25 = 85150 years..

Edited by Sensei

1 Liter of Helium has mass 0.1786 g.

1 Helium-4 particle has mass = 4.0026/6.022141e+23 = ~6.646e-24 g

0.1786 g/L / 6.6465e-24 g = 2.687e+22 atoms in liter.

 

2.687e+22 / 10e+9 = 2.687e+12 seconds each one producing 10 billion atoms

 

/ 86400 = 3.11e+7 days

/ 365.25 = 85150 years..

 

 

Avogadro's law is a much neater way of doing things. All ideal gases (I presume He behaves enough like an ideal gas for us to use this) have the same number of atoms or molecules per litre at a given temperature and pressure. At RTP a mole of ideal gas will be 22.712 litres at Room temperature and pressure - introducing density etc just makes a rod for your own back.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro%27s_law#Molar_volume

If you had a beam current of a microamp (which would be pretty good going, it would produce, under ideal conditions, about 10 billion atoms per second.

that's something like a million million seconds per litre.

That's something like 31 years.

 

It would be cheaper and more efficient (though still impractical) to get a big closed container and fill it with uranium ore and catch the helium that comes out of that.

Oops!

I got the difficult bit right, then failed to convert a million million seconds into years correctly.

 

It's about 31000 years. (I don't think the factor of 2.687 is going to change the economics much.

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so it would take to long generate one litre of helium is that right

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would accelerating alpha particles be in the same situation

would accelerating alpha particles be in the same situation

You wouldn't need to accelerate them. Just catch them and they will pick up electrons to become He4 atoms.

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