Muon-Catalyzed Fusion Reactor

Name: Muon-Catalyzed Fusion Reactor
Notes: For millennia, the various members of the Zodiac Empire experimented with improving their various fusion technologies. However, the biggest restriction was always thermal restrictions, the plasma utilized consistently hot enough to melt through almost every known material; and, while such thermal ‘hot’ plasma is useful for some applications, it was a con in power generation.
Over several generations, different species struck upon the concept of muon-catalyze fusion and how it could potentially allow reactions at, or even below, room temperature. However, the flaw here was, at the time, none had a reliable means to produce muons in the quantities needed, so it remained only theoretical.
It wasn’t until several matter/anti-matter powered ships had catastrophic spatial warp drive failures during the war with the Holy Terran Empire that a way in was discovered. After incident reports disclosed muon build up in the engines is what caused the detonations, the Fenghuang and their allies realized they had a reliable means to generate muons in bulk. Both harvesting muons during now mandatory regular engine checks and from purpose dedicated reactors, they could now proceed to create the previously scoffed at and dismissed cold fusion.
With muons being around 207 times more massive, electrons are artificially replaced in the target fuel. The muon both shields and reduces the natural electromagnetic repulsion between two nuclei and draws them much closer into a covalent bond than an electron can. Because the nuclei are so close, the strong nuclear force is able to kick in and bind both nuclei together. They fuse, release the catalytic muon (most of the time), and part of the original mass of both nuclei is released as energetic particles, as with any other type of nuclear fusion. The release of the catalytic muon is critical to continue the reactions. The majority of the muons continue to bond with other hydrogen isotopes and continue fusing nuclei together.
Category:Technology