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Re: Re: starship-design: Bugs and Peformances



AJ Crowl writes:
 > In sufficient numbers neutrinos are bad too. Assuming we use aneutronic
 > reactions we can eliminate one, but what of the other?

Yeah, but those "sufficient numbers" are absolutely incredible
and nearly impossible to achieve except in drastic events like
supernova explosions.

I've seen estimates that the core collapse in a supernova
produces something like 10^51 neutrinos, which is enough to cook
a nearby planet merely from kinetic neutrino interactions (they
occasionally bounce off nuclei imparting some of their kinetic
energy, and much more rarely produce an inverse beta decay).  If
you're near a supernova you probably wouldn't get to see the
beginning of the spectacular fireworks as a result.  But there's
no conceivable fusion reactor that could produce enough neutrino
flux to be dangerous from its neutrino flux, no matter how close
you stand.

Even if you had something like Larry Niven's "reactionless"
neutrino thrusters you probably couldn't get radiation effects
from standing behind them.