Grid of the Gods - Farrell - de Hart

x-rays and neutrons into the whole recipe. These x-rays further heat the compressing deuterium, pushing its nuclei past the barriers of electrostatic repulsion and causing them to fuse together;12 8) At this juncture, according to hydrogen bomb historian Richard Rhodes, three different kinds of fusion reaction occurred, and here, we begin to observe the beginnings of a “problem”: a) According to Rhodes, some of these deuterium nuclei “fused to form a helium nucleus — an alpha particle — with the release of a neutron, the alpha and the neutron sharing an energy of 3.27 MeV.”13 This neutron then shoots “through the mass of fusing deuterons”14 and escapes, while the positively charged alpha particle adds its own energy to the mass of heating deuterons, further heating it;15 b) But there is another reaction that occurs. Some deuterons fuse to form a tritium nucleus — that is, a hydrogen isotope’s nucleus consisting of one proton and two neutrons — releasing a free proton which in turn dumps its energy into the heating mass of deuterons, with “the triton and the proton sharing 4.03 MeV;”16