>>7625107Oh, and even if there was no cost in sticking a proton onto Uup-299, this would actually degrade the Uup fuel rather rapidly - very far from being as long-lasting as Lazar describes it!
Because positron emission works by transmuting protons to neutrons, the reaction scheme would go
>Uup-299 + p -> Uuh-300>Uup-300 -> Uup-300 + e+ + ve (electron neutrino)>e+ + e = y (gamma photon)This means that each proton capture would convert Uup-299 to Uup-300, one neutron heavier. So each 1 MeV of energy extracted would use up 1 atom of Uup-299, weighing 299 amu.
(And if Uup-300 could be converted back to Uup-299 for less energy than the Uup-299->Uup-300 reaction released, you'd have a perpetual motion machine, so that transmutation must actually "use up" the E115 for the purposes of this reaction.)
So, totally ignoring the cost of getting those protons on there in the first place, you'd get 322,707 megajoules of energy per kilogram of Element 115 - very high, but less than most conventional nuclear fuels. Even decaying tritium has a higher energy density than that!
At the claimed rate - 223 grams of Element 115 over 20-30 years - then that gets you a power of just 114 Watts over 20 years, or 2/3rds as much over 30 years. This is tiny. You'd need about 9 such power cells to run an ordinary microwave oven.
